Rupay, Aanay, Pai (Film screening)
Key information
- Date
- Time
-
5:15 pm
- Venue
- SOAS, University of London
- Room
- Wolfson Lecture Theatre
- Event type
- Film screening
About this event
Rupay, Aanay, Pai (Money Matters) traces a young boy’s journey through Lahore’s margins, exploring enduring struggles for survival, dignity, and belonging, followed by a panel discussion.
Based on a poignant short story by the legendary subcontinental writer K.A. Abbas, Rupay, Aanay, Pai (Money Matters) follows a young village boy who arrives in the late 1990s into the dense, bustling labyrinth of the historic Walled City of Lahore, navigating the peripheral margins of a capitalist economy.
While Abbas penned the original narrative in the socio-economic context of the 1940s, this cinematic adaptation transposes the protagonist's journey to the turn of the millennium. This shift in time underscores a haunting reality: across decades, remarkably little has changed in the postcolonial fight for fundamental human needs—Bread, Dress, Space, and Love.
Following the screening, an academic panel discussion will delve into the film's visual language, its literary roots, and the socio-economic continuity of marginalized spaces in South Asia.
About the Speaker
Dr. Ahmad Bilal is Chair of Graphic Design and Founding Director of the Postgraduate Research Centre of Creative Arts at the University of the Punjab, Lahore. A UK-trained academic with over 30 years’ experience, he completed his PhD at Nottingham Trent University (2015).
Image credit: Film still from Rupay, Aanay, Pai (Money Matters)
