Shantata! Court Chalu Aahe (1968)

Marathi cinema’s first explicitly avant-garde film. It is based on one of Tendulkar’s best- known plays first staged by the well-known experimental theatre collective Rangayan. Stranded in a village, the members of a low- brow theatre group decide to pass the time by mounting a mock trial. One member of the group, Leela Benare (S. Deshpande), is expected to defend herself against a series of charges. These so disconcert the woman that the game gradually turns more serious, revealing the false veneer and the propensity to violence of the middle-class performers. The film features several of the Rangayan cast, including Sulabha Deshpande in the central role. Noted avant-garde stage director Dubey shot it using extensive jump-cuts, repeatedly fragmenting the action and the sound into a series of isolated units. Although the film depicts some of the fictional accusations, it follows the play’s strategy of not revealing to the audience whether the charges are in fact true or false. It was the debut of several noted film personalities, including Tendulkar himself, Amol Palekar, Amrish Puri and director/ cinematographer Govind Nihalani who co- produced the film in addition to shooting it. The film was apparently admired by Ritwik Ghatak.