One tends to take for granted people’s ability to speak and express themselves, and more so in the security of one’s own home. But a reading of Poile Sengupta’s play, Mangalam quickly disabuses us of our illusions. It is a play that studies the kind of terror and manipulations that young girls have to brave even within their homes. This paper is an effort to study the various kinds of silences that a woman encounters as part of her subjugation and also the silences she adopts to subvert the hegemony of patriarchy. It also tries to understand why women allow themselves to be marginalized even after struggling to nurture and nourish their families, why they do not find the courage to form a community and gain support from each other. The play focuses on how close relationships become tools of subjugation and manipulation. It makes an effort to understand the construct of a society that allows positions of power and trust, within a family, to abuse those under their care. Using innovative techniques like play within play, chorus and same actors playing different roles, Sengupta tries to create an awareness of the dangers that lie unaddressed because they are seen as problems of the family. The play politicizes issues like rape, physical abuse, silencing and invalidation which have remained largely neglected on stage.