Director Sharmeen Obaid-Chinoy on how Ms Marvel is a ‘moment for Pakistan’

The series stars Iman Vellani as Marvel Studios’ first Muslim superhero.

• Mohnish Singh
• 12 July, 2022

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By: Mohnish Singh

The superhero series Ms Marvel from the house of Marvel Studios has emerged as a global success on Disney+. Earlier, the show was in news for starring Iman Vellani as Marvel Studios’ first Muslim superhero. Later, the show also arrested viewers’ attention for Indian star Farhan Akhtar’s cameo and Pakistani star Fawad Khan playing an Indian freedom fighter. It won’t be an exaggeration to say that Ms Marvel has become a connecting factor between the two nations.

In a recent interview, director Sharmeen Obaid-Chinoy, who directed the fourth and fifth episodes of the series, spoke about the importance of Ms Marvel to Pakistan. She said that it is a “moment for Pakistan” and that there is a reason why there was a special theatrical run in the country. “Because so much of what you’d see on screen is a celebration of who we are and where we come from,” she told a Pakistani daily.

 

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A post shared by Sharmeen Obaid Chinoy (@sharmeenobaidchinoy)

Sharing how all superheroes looked the same before the success of Black Panther, she said, “The success of Black Panther film sort of really pushed the conversation and narrative that superheroes could be in all shapes, sizes, colours, and religions and that they should be for everyone,” she said.

Earlier, speaking to an Indian daily, Sharmeen had shared her experience of filming the Partition scene in the two episodes. “When we were standing on the platform, there were close to a thousand extras on set in the scene where we had gone back into 1947. When Kamala was walking on the platform, listening to these snatches of conversations, there was a moment when all of us on set couldn’t believe that we were able to recreate Partition and tell this story to this generation. For that time, we were filming her walking through that platform, we really were transported into 1947. Each one of us felt the pain of what those families were going through and it felt like we were bearing witness to history,” she said.

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