Silence! the court session summary

Leela Benare makes her way to a meeting room in a small Indian village. There, she and a few of her coworkers will perform a Living Courtroom for the locals. Benare and a villain named Samant arrive early, assist her in unlocking the building, and have a conversation while they wait for the rest of the troop to arrive. Benare is unmarried and recently became pregnant, unbeknownst to her coworkers and the audience. She has also been fired from her job as a school teacher because her bosses were concerned that she would pass on her immorality to the children because of her pregnancy. Karnik, Mr. Kashikar, Sukhatme, Rokde, Ponkshe, and Mrs. Kashikar enter the conference room. Professor Damle and Mr. Rawte, two troop members, were unable to attend the performance. 

Even though they have worked together for a long time, each member of the group is always trying to assert his or her authority by making comments about the others. The troop members decide to improvise a trial while they wait, as they have several hours until the performance they are supposed to do. They make the decision to keep most of the roles the same—Sukhatme plays the lawyer and Kashikar plays the judge—but they choose to name a new defendant. Since Benare was out of the room during the discussion, the accused is named without her input. Ponkshe and Karnik maliciously suggest that Benare be charged with infanticide because they are likely aware that something is wrong in her personal life, possibly related to her pregnancy.

Benare is combative and mischievous at the beginning of the trial, prompting her coworkers to tell her to be serious. However, Benare's associates remind her that the trial is just a game as it progresses and begins to intersect with her personal life, causing her to become enraged. As an outspoken, unmarried woman, many troop members have been quietly critical of Benare's life, using this trial as an opportunity to criticize her and progressive Indian politics as a whole. When Rokde says that he actually went to Damle's house one afternoon and saw Benare there, the trial gets heated up. Samantha creates a fictional scenario in which Benarehas has an affair with Damle and becomes pregnant. Benare is, in fact, pregnant with Damle's child and has been frantically trying to find a way to ensure that her baby has a happy future, as Benare's distressed response reveals. 

The players become more serious as the troop realizes that their fictional trial contains a grain of truth. Beware, irritated tries to leave, but the room has been locked from the outside, so she must continue the trial. For the sake of the "game," Rokde, Ponkshe, and Karnik reveal details of her personal life over the next hour. Rokdereveal that Benare approached them and asked him to marry her and raise her child, but both men turned her down. Ponkshe and Rokdereveal that Benares. Sukhatme makes a case against Benare at the trial's conclusion, arguing that she has tainted society and the very concept of motherhood. Kashikar gives Benare ten seconds to respond, and as Benare delivers the speech about her search for love, her love of teaching, and her commitment to raising her child, the clock stops. 

As Kashikar delivers Benare's punishment, an abortion that the court ordered, time breaks free. She collapses to the ground, devastated. Villagers trickle in and unlock the door from the outside, bringing the court back to reality. The men, who have been deeply enmeshed in their roles as judges and lawyers, suddenly realize who they are. The entire gathering goes to Benare, still lifeless on the floor, and attempts to remind her it was only a game, but they can't revitalize her. Benare remains alone on stage while they leave to get ready for their performance in the evening.