''Shantata! Court Chalu Aahe'' (''Silence! The Court Is in Session'') is a Marathi play written by Indian playwright

Vijay Tendulkar Vijay Dhondopant Tendulkar (6 January 1928 – 19 May 2008) was a leading Indian playwright, movie and television writer, literary essayist, political journalist, and social commentator primarily in Marāthi. His Marathi plays established him as ...

in 1963 and first performed in 1967, directed by Arvind Deshpande, with

Sulbha Deshpande Sulabha Deshpande ( mr, सुलभा देशपांडे; 1937 – 4 June 2016) was an Indian actress and theatre director. Apart from Marathi theatre and Hindi theatre in Mumbai, she acted in over 73 mainstream Bollywood films. She als ...

as the main lead. The play was written in 1963, for Rangayan, a Mumbai-based theatre group, though it was performed much later. It was inspired after the playwright overheard the conversation amongst the members of amateur theatre group traveling on Mumbai local train to perform a mock-trial at

Vile Parle Vile Parle (, also known as Parle, pronounced "Parle" or "Parla"), is a neighbourhood and also the name of the railway station in the Western suburb of Mumbai. Vile Parle has a significantly strong base of Marathi and Gujarati population. It s ...

suburb. The play was based on a 1956 novel, '' Die Panne'' (Traps) by Swiss playwright

Friedrich Dürrenmatt Friedrich Dürrenmatt (; 5 January 1921 – 14 December 1990) was a Swiss author and dramatist. He was a proponent of epic theatre whose plays reflected the recent experiences of World War II. The politically active author's work included avant-g ...

Translations

The play has since been translated into 16 languages in India and abroad. The BBC showed its English version, filmed by

Satyadev Dubey Satyadev Dubey (13 July 1936 – 25 December 2011) was an Indian theatre director, actor, playwright, screenwriter & film director. He was awarded the Sangeet Natak Akademi Award in 1971. He won the 1978 National Film Award for Best Scre ...

. Actor-director,

Om Shivpuri Om Shivpuri (14 July 1938 – 15 October 1990) was an Indian theatre actor-director and character actor in Hindi films. A National School of Drama, New Delhi alumnus, Shivpuri became the first chief of the National School of Drama Repertory Co ...

, directed the Hindi translation of the play as ''Khamosh! Adaalat Jaari Hai''. The play had his wife Sudha Shivpuri in the lead role and is regarded as a key milestone in the history of Indian Theatre.

Plot

A group of teachers plan to stage a play in a village. When a cast-member does not show up, a local stagehand is asked to replace him. An improvised, free-flowing 'rehearsal' is arranged and a mock trial is staged to make the novice understand court procedures. A (mock) charge of infanticide is leveled against Miss Benare, another cast-member. All of a sudden, the pretend-play turns into an accusatory game when it emerges from the trial that Miss Benare is carrying an out-of-wedlock child from her failed illicit relationship with Professor Damle, the missing cast-member.

Critical acclaim

Its playwright, Vijay Tendulkar, got national recognition in the form of the

Kamaladevi Chattopadhyay Kamaladevi Chattopadhyay (3 April 1903 – 29 October 1988) was an Indian social reformer and freedom activist. She was most remembered for her contribution to the Indian independence movement; for being the driving force behind the renaissanc ...

Award for drama in 1970 and Sangeet Natak Akademi Award (National Academy of Music, Dance and Drama) in 1970 for playwriting.

Adaptations

Noted Marathi playwright and stage director

directed a Marathi film based on the play, with the same name in 1971. ''Shantata! Court Chalu Aahe'' started the New Cinema movement in

Marathi cinema Marathi cinema is an Indian film industry of Marathi-language motion pictures. It is based in Mumbai, Maharashtra. Based in old Mumbai, it is the oldest film industry of Indian cinema. The first Marathi film to be released in India was '' ...

and is considered one of India’s finest films. It marked the debut of actors

Amrish Puri Amrish Puri (22 June 1932 – 12 January 2005) was an Indian actor, who was one of the most notable and important figures in Indian cinema and Theatre. He acted in more than 450 films, established himself as one of the most popular actor ...

and

Amol Palekar Amol Palekar (born 24 November 1944) is an Indian actor, director and producer of Hindi and Marathi cinema. Career Palekar studied fine arts at the Sir JJ School of Arts, Mumbai, and commenced his artistic career as a painter. As a painter, he ...

, and of Govind Nihalani for whom this was his first film as a full-fledged cinematographer; till then, he had worked an assistant to Guru Dutt’s cinematographer V.K. Murthy. Govind Nihalani co-produced the film with Satyadev Dubey. This was

's first screenplay, who went on to write films like ''Nishant'', ''Aakrosh'', ''Ardh Satya'' and ''

Umbartha ''Umbartha'' ( IPA: Umbaraṭhā; en, The Doorstep) is a 1982 Indian Marathi-language film produced by D. V. Rao and directed and coproduced by Jabbar Patel. The film is a story of a woman's dream to step outside her four walled home and bring ...

''. Indian film director Ritesh Menon adapted the play into a

Hindi Hindi ( Devanāgarī: or , ), or more precisely Modern Standard Hindi (Devanagari: ), is an Indo-Aryan language spoken chiefly in the Hindi Belt region encompassing parts of northern, central, eastern, and western India. Hindi has been ...

-language film titled (after the name of the play's Hindi translation) ''Khamosh Adalat Jaari Hai'' in 2017.

Film cast

* Arvind Deshpande *

as Leela Benare *

* Eknath Hattagadi

References

External links

*
Film Awards for Shantata! Court Chalu Aahe
{{authority control Friedrich Dürrenmatt Postmodern plays Plays by Vijay Tendulkar 1967 plays 1970s Marathi-language films Indian plays adapted into films Marathi-language plays Plays based on novels