Khamosh! Adalat Jaari Hai (Shantata! Court Chalu Aahe) a Marathi play written by playwright Vijay Tendulkar, directed by Arvind Deshpande and first performed in 1968. The play was based on a 1956 novel, Die Panne (Traps) by Swiss playwright Friedrich Dürrenmatt. The play has since been translated into 16 languages in India and abroad. In Hindi, Sarojini Verma translates it.
A group of amateur actors from different walks of life come to a small town to perform a play. When a cast members doesn't 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 pretended-play turns into an accusatory game when it emerges from the trail that Miss. Benare is carrying an out-of-wedlock child from her failed illicit relationship with Professor Damle, the missing cast-member.
Unfulfilled desires, hypocrisy, gender discrimination, social customs and manifestations of power are some of the ideas that this play tries to touch upon.