Come Back from the War

ABOUT THE BOOK Atamjit’s play Come back from the War (Murh aa Lama Ton) is a very uniquetext in many ways. Perhaps the first play in Punjabi language that deals with war – the First World War – as the title itself indicates it is a multi-layered text that unfolds against the backdrop of the din and chaos of the First World War being fought around Ypres the war theatre in West Flanders Belgium. Anchored as it is in the specific historical situation of the Great War it undoubtedly foregrounds the barbarity violence atrocity and futility of the War. However through its complex structure use of the technique of montage deft intermingling of the real and the surreal and self-conscious intertextuality it transcends its limited situation to bring into sharp focus many other themes which are of eternal significance to humanity. In fact because of its polyphonic and multilogic structure it is difficult to place this text under the disciplinary economy of a particular type or genre. As it is the fact is that each literary text with its irrepressible recalcitrance and excess overruns all limits and boundaries assigned to it. The labels are like nets we cast over the play of difference in plural to master differences and to control them. Come back from the Waris a text that in very stubbornly tending to breach all borders asserts its uniqueness in its difference from others. ABOUT THE AUTHOR Having authored 34 plays Atamjit is one of the leading Indian playwrights who has been active in Punjabi literary and artistic milieu for more than four decades both as a playwright and as theatre director. Respected by scholars and society alike his immense contribution has been acknowledged apart from many others by Sahitya Akedemy and Sangeet Natak Akademy of India. Atamjit’s plays have been prescribed in the curricula of different courses of more than a dozen universities.