This play is unique as it is play within a play. Khaamosh Adalat Jari Hai is play about a group of theatre artistes who travel to a village and decide to put on a mock courtroom scene. What starts of as a casual mock courtroom scene turns starts to bring out the darker side as it progresses. The play is set to premiere in the city on April 8.
The play was first written by playwright Vijay Tendulkar which he had written about 50 years ago. Shaurya Singh the director of the play, explaining the theme says, “The play centres around the suppression and oppression of women and how we tend to judge people based on their life and choices. It was written a long time back but the themes are relevant now as they were then.”
This play also shows us how judgemental we are about anything that doesn’t fit into the norm especially when it comes to women. This theatre production house has always wanted to pick up themes and stories that mirror something about society and this play fits in like a glove. Telling us about the play, Shaurya says, “The play is about a group of theatre artistes who have reached a small village to perform, they have a free day so they decide to play out a mock court drama. They select the lady actor amongst them to play the accused. They enact a drama where they accuse her of things. Although its starts of a casual thing, soon it becomes a serious affair where aspects of her personal life are brought up.” The playwright wrote this play based on real-life incidents. He was inspired by society in those times, but the concept is relevant even today.
Varun Kainth who has been a part time theatre artiste for the last five years plays Sukhaatme, who is a lawyer and runs the entire show. He decides all aspects of the court room play. Varun explaining his character more says, “Sukhaatme is the antagonist in the play who is devious, cunning, a schemer and a big influencer in the play. He exploits that for his own benefit. This character has been the most challenging to perform because it very different from how I am. It is a complete new character that I have to do on-stage. Bringing out his mannerism into my performance took me to some dark places inside.”
Deevas Gupta plays Kashikar, who is the head of the group, a social worker who has earned a lot of respect within the society and the group. He adds, “This play is very intense. On stage it looks like female victimisation and all but there are also a lot of hidden layers of human psychologies. Every person has two faces. When given the liberty to do anything it tends to trigger the scariest face of the person.” Rekha Rane plays the character of Neela Denaare is a headstrong, independent woman who likes doing things her own way. She is very comfortable with herself and enjoys her own company. She also plays the woman who is accused in the mock play. Rekha goes on to add, “The beautiful thing about this play is that no matter when you do, it was written in the 60s, even now it is as relevant. I realised that it doesn’t necessarily have to be a period drama.”
The original play written in Marathi has been performed all over, but with this group its going to be a premiere show. The team has contemporised it in terms of language and also brought in speed to the sequence of events and made it more palatable to the current audience.
