Silence! The Court Is in Session: Character Mind Map & Summary
The key characters of Vijay Tendulkar's Silence! The Court Is in Session (1967), grouped into branches, with the key episodes, a quick summary and the exam facts that come up again and again in UGC NET.
The Character Mind Map
Tap any name to open the details.
Leela Benare
A lively, independent schoolteacher, unmarried and pregnant. During a rehearsal, her fellow actors stage a "mock trial" that turns into a real and cruel attack on her private life.
Ending: "verdict" that her child must be destroyed; she collapses👑 The Troupe
Amateur actorsMr KashikarThe "judge"
Role: A self-important social worker.
Mrs KashikarHis wife
Role: Childless and spiteful.
SukhatmeThe "lawyer"
Role: A failed lawyer who enjoys the prosecution.
Balu RokdeA shy young man
Role: Lives with the Kashikars; tells a gossip about Benare.
PonksheA clerk
Role: Benare once proposed to him; he refused.
KarnikAn actor
Role: Exposes her past.
🏠 Outsiders
Absent & presentProfessor DamleThe father of her child
Role: A married man who abandoned her; never appears.
SamantA villager
Role: Plays the witness.
Memory Hook
One simple pattern to remember the whole work.
Key Episodes
The turning points examiners love to ask about.
Quick Summary
The story, stage by stage.
Act 1The Game
- The troupe arrives early; the mock trial begins.
- Benare is accused.
Act 2Witnesses
- Gossip becomes evidence.
- Her pregnancy is exposed.
Act 3Judgement
- Benare's silence and monologue.
- The cruel verdict; she falls.
Must-Know Exam Facts
Quick points for UGC NET, SET and PGT.
Original
Shantata! Court Chalu Aahe (Marathi, 1967).
Translation
English translation by Priya Adarkar.
Inspiration
Friedrich Dürrenmatt's Die Panne (Traps).
Theme
Hypocrisy, patriarchy, the cruelty of the middle class.
Symbol
The toy parrot and the song about the sparrow.
Film
Film by Satyadev Dubey (1971).
Indian Literature
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