Lahore’s entertainment vigilantes

Origami is the hottest new platform for the youth to promote their creative gifts.

LAHORE:

Gone are the days when the youth bemoaned the lack of initiatives by the government or civil society to provide them with avenues for exhibiting their talents. Now a group of twenty-somethings, under the banner of Origami, has accomplished just this for their own generation.

Conceptualised by Mehreen Rana, Origami is run by a motley crew of young and energetic professionals: Rana’s  brother Saad — an event manager at Jalal and Satti (JnS3), Sarah Waqar — a student of advertising, Ali Shehzad — a banker and Rifah — an architect.

The Rana siblings handle the back-end support and logistics while Waqar uses her social connections to attract the public. Shehzad keeps the finances in check and Rifah manages the aesthetics.

Waqar came up with the name Origami. “It describes what we do best; turning something simple and bare, into art,” she said. “The eventual goal for Origami is to become a talent agency.”

“We are purely an entertainment company, and will never do a launch or a fashion show,” Rana adds adamantly.

Together this vivacious team arranges alternative forms of entertainment in Lahore – the former cultural hub which has now atrophied in terms of cultural and artistic innovation. The troupe kicked off by bringing stand-up comedians Saad Haroon and Sami Shah to Lahore. Subsequently, they organized concerts showcasing the percussion band Quadrum and the popular female duo Cheapmunks. Additionally, they regularly host open mic nights and screening football matches.

Rana received the inspirational jolt for launching Origami when nobody was willing to showcase the artwork of her 13-year-old cousin. “Every major gallery declined to display his work, so I...put up his paintings at the popular dessert spot Gelato Affair, and he made a lakh in two days,” narrates Rana.

“That’s when I realised that there’s a lot of talent in the country that just needs to be combed and given a platform. Our open mic nights are the biggest evidence of that.”

It is interesting to note that all in the Origami team have day jobs, and very demanding ones, in fact. Rana, with her jam-packed schedule has never attended her signature event, the open mic night.

But when asked how she juggles work at Origami with a day job, Rana displays considerable modesty. “I do all the back-end, and honestly all it takes is a few phone calls and emails.”

She also explains that since she and her employers at JnS3 mutually trust each other, there is no conflict of interest between them.

In fact, the young CEO also endorses the employment of her other team members. “It works because we haven’t done anything grand as yet that would require all of us to be there a hundred per cent,” she explains. “To sustain this organisation we all need jobs. Once we are able to sustain it, then we can focus on it solely.”

Each event organised by Origami has spiced up the otherwise humdrum social life of the youth, for whom avenues for healthy entertainment are mostly restricted to the extra-curricular activities at schools and colleges.

From featuring a 45-year-old woman singing Adnan Sami, a 16-year-old performing superb magic tricks, to a 10-year-old beating drums and even a three-year-old playing the percussions, the open mic nights have retained their wow factor every single time. Currently in the pipeline for the talent company, is a unique reader’s theatre, where young writers can narrate their manuscripts.

Since the commonly accepted notion is that talents like writing or singing bear no relevance in real life, young people often have to sideline their creativity in the pursuit of more “practical” goals. However, Origami challenges that perception and encourages everyone to explore and share their talent. “What is most encouraging,” concludes Rana, “is that now, whenever anybody wants to do something different, they call me.”



Published in The Express Tribune, May 25^th, 2011.