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Court Martial: Swadesh Deepak


The India habitat Centre has always been a place that never ceases to bring some food for thought in one form or another. Today, it was the play Court Martial, written by Swadesh Deepak and performed by the famous Asmita Theatre group. The play essentially deals with the social stigma attached to a member of the lower caste who serves In the Indian army who is being tried for murder of a fellow army man. 

Through the course of the trial, the play proves to us that Truth is not what is just visible at face value. Truth is not one sided. Perhaps, unlike a coin truth does not just have two sides, but many. This is brought about beautifully by the end of the play which is extremely well written. Asmita’s enactment of the play was like an icing to the already well written play wherein the intensity of the scenes brought goose pimples to many.

When I am writing about Court Martial, it is essential I mention this fact about it’s much celebrated Sangeet Natak Academi Award winning author Swadesh Deepak, that he has been missing since 2006. Having shown symptoms of Bipolar disorder earlier, it is said that Deepak went for a morning walk in 2006, never to return back home. What touched me at the end of the play was the director Arvind Gaur’s sincere prayer that during one of the performances of the play he is able to hear a voice from the back saying “I am the writer of the play”. Deepak’s relatives go to each of the performances of the play even today.

Lastly, the play Court Martial was performed as a part of the ongoing Summer Theatre festival by the Asmita Theatre group. For those of you who missed this one, you can always catch the various other plays on the weekends till 4th July at India habitat Centre. Also, Arvind Gaur says “We have free theatre workshops for people every weekend for people. You can just walk in at 9:00 am in India habitat Centre, become a part of the assembled group, work on a short play over the weekend and perform the play on Sunday evening.” Hearing him say that, my mind tells me that it thinks I found a way to spend my vacation weekends doing something worthwhile!

P.S. A poem dedicated to Swadesh Deepak that you might want to read: http://sanitysucks.blogspot.in/2006/12/where-is-swadesh-deepak.html
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