Skip to main content

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
Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Spirals and Circles

So here is a mathematical answer to a question that I have quite often asked myself and seldom troubled my friends with: “Does life move in Spirals or Circles?” The course that life takes is often described as a maze by some and a road with lots of twists and turns by others. A complicated web of events, people, emotions and thoughts, caught between these is you, the spider. A lot of our religious books refer to the course of life as “the cycle of life”, which essentially means “the circle of life”. It is perhaps the phrase used most often during those innumerable philosophical discussions that boring people like us have over drinks with friends. Yes, I have been ranting for quite a while, without really bringing in what I promised: the mathematics! In laymen terms, a circle is a two dimensional figure which is a collection of all points that are at equal distances from a given point. Essentially, a circle starts and ends at the same point. A spiral, is a three dimensional figur...
9 comments
Read more

The MIC Syndrome!

Today, with deep admiration for myself and a few others who helped me in my discovery, I present before my readers a not-so-new genre of males: The MIC males, short for The Messed up, In Denial, Crying males! At the risk of sounding sexist and fearing unwelcomed remarks, the usual disclaimer is as follows: The category of humans being described here is just from personal experience or/and experiences of others that I happen to witness quite closely and observed acutely. Before really describing this genre, it makes sense to tell you their importance in the world. Well, to say the least, they help in bringing variety to our otherwise boring lives! If you are finally tired of staring at the ceiling of your house, it’s time for you to go out there looking for these men! Where will you find them? Now that’s a tricky one! Generally, their physical characteristics can be quite deceptive and they do not hang out in clusters like the geese. You really have to be lucky enough to be able ...
14 comments
Read more

Finding yourself?

Amidst all the cheering and jeering I stand with my back to all those people I can hear them and yet I turn a deaf ear to them Because in this moment, nothing matters It is just me and my thoughts And these thoughts overpower me Like waves overpower a sinking ship There was a ship I once saw It was blue and red and a little green It kept moving ahead with a hole at the bottom The captain kept rowing and rowing And the others kept emptying the ship of the water He was almost in a frenzy to reach the horizon And he did not seem to care about the setting sun In the same sea a little further from the ship I saw two fishes, they were blue and red and a little green They were chasing the yellow light in the sea That bright light lit the sea as if it was on fire They kept swimming and jumping and running With each step ahead they lost the soft beautiful fins And yet they kept swimming towards the horizon Not knowing that the sun was really setting ...
Post a Comment
Read more