‘He feels seen’: Filmmaker Asim Abbasi’s 8-year-old feels like the hero of his own world thanks to Ms Marvel

Ms Marvel has done a clean sweep where our hearts are concerned and Asim Abbasi’s eight-year-old son seems as enamoured with the show as we are. The filmmaker shared how the show has impacted his son and what the “power of storytelling” can do.

Abbasi shared a still from the show featuring Iman Vellani as Kamala Khan aka Ms Marvel and Nimra Bucha as Najma clutching at the magical bangle on Kamala’s wrist and wrote, “What a glorious summer it’s been for groundbreaking Pakistani content and artists.

“Been watching Ms Marvel with my eight-year -old who has never before been into superhero stuff. But he is devouring this show, sharing details of it with his grandparents and his friends at school, making maps and drawings of partition and train stations, and leaving voice notes to Nimra (‘you creep me out, Najma!’).”

The Churails director said his son feels represented, like he is the main character of his own story. “He feels seen. And that is the power of storytelling. It lies in the emotional, cathartic connect and representation in which you are not just the ‘other’, the sidekick, the comic in someone else’s world. Where you are the hero of your own world.”

To those who had a lot to pick out and pinpoint in the show he said, “So critique if you want to, but also, please rejoice for this is huge. (The burden of some full and final representation is too great for one show and a handful of artists to ever bear).”

The Cake director also gave a shoutout to the team. “Kudos to Sharmeen Obaid-Chinoy, Nimra Bucha, Fawad Khan, Mehwish Hayat and everyone else from around the globe who has been instrumental in bringing Ms Marvel to us!”

He addressed the people who are “lucky enough to be in Pakistan” and asked them to go catch it in the cinemas.

The show is a coming-of-age story of 16-year-old Kamala, a Pakistani-American teen who lives in Jersey City. Kamala is an aspiring artist, an avid gamer and a voracious fan-fiction scribe. She is also a huge fan of the Avengers — and one in particular, Captain Marvel. But Kamala has always struggled to find her place in the world — that is until she gets super powers like the heroes she’s always looked up to.

The six-episode mini-series is helmed by Oscar-winning Pakistani filmmaker Obaid-Chinoy, Meera Menon, Adil El Arbi and Bilall Fallah. The first episode dropped on June 8 and a new episode has been released every Wednesday. Marvel Studios has also been releasing Ms Marvel exclusively in cinemas in Pakistan.

The cast also includes Pakistani actors Khan, Hayat, Bucha and Indian actor Farhan Akhtar.