Then A [Desi] Hero Comes Along

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Who said desi accents weren’t sexy? One in particular will keep me glued to the TV every Monday night, starting next Monday on the NBC sci-fi drama Heroes.

Desi-licious

The most heated debate [by critics] centers on “Heroes,” NBC’s bold new drama about everyday people who discover they have extraordinary powers (one can teleport, another can fly, a third is impervious to bodily injury) and ultimately band together to fight evil. (Think “X-Men” meets “Lost.”) Our panelists are deeply divided on this show — they either love it or seem to be disillusioned with the genre. [link]

Looks like with this show, NBC will be finally be able to tap into the ‘sci-fi drama for Gen X’ market that had been previously cornered by the soon to be defunct WB. As for my new television crush with the delicious desi accent — it is Sendhil Ramamurthy, who plays the Indian geneticist turned New York cabbie Mohinder Suresh.

A tenured genetics professor at the the University of Madras. His father Chandra was also a professor until he disappeared from India and the accredited academic world years ago after raving about a “global event’ that would change mankind. He thought his answers would be in New York… Chandra was murdered. Mohinder moves to New York to find out why his father was killed. [link]

Boys, you can have your Lakshmi-the-cooking-show-host because us girls will have Ramamurthy-the-geneticist- professor-who-will-solve-the-mystery. The Heroes site has delicious videos online to be sure to get you addicted well in advances of the Sept. 25th premiere. If you are a fan of the intrigue that was behind Lost (first season), or a comic book geek for superhuman abilities, then this show is sure to be your cup of chai. Join me in my new Monday night obsession, as I’m sure other female mutineers across the nation will be sure to do, in a swoon worthy weekly television event.

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About Taz

Taz is an activist, organizer and writer based in California. She is the founder of South Asian American Voting Youth (SAAVY), curates MutinousMindState.tumblr.com and blogs at TazzyStar.blogspot.com. Follow her at twitter.com/tazzystar

234 thoughts on “Then A [Desi] Hero Comes Along”

  5. I don’t get the ‘he doesn’t look Indian’ thing – to my eyes, he looks obviously South Indian in the same way that Naveen Andrews does (although the two dudes don’t look alike).

  8. Olga’s on one of my favorite BBC shows- MI-5. I just saw Sendhil’s video on the NBC Heroes website—what accent exactly is he supposed to have?

  9. I don’t get the ‘he doesn’t look Indian’ thing – to my eyes, he looks obviously South Indian

    it’s in the eyes of the beholder of course… but when i think indian beauty i think of someone like that girl who won the geek contest.. i think the red snapper would agree.

  10. He’s a hottie with a body. And he’s a papa too!

    I think it is funny that in the description it talks about how his SISTER is a doctor and describes HER residency info.

    I can hear the mom saying: Ya, ya my beta is an actor, but my beti is a doctor. 😉

    “He has one sister, who is also a physician, doing a residency in a Combined Internal Medicine & Psychiatry program.”

  11. “He has one sister, who is also a physician, doing a residency in a Combined Internal Medicine & Psychiatry program.”

    ….”non-smoker, non-drinker (she claims), vegetarian (she claims), no previous relationship history (she claims), 5’6″, good mixture of East-West values, 27 years old, looking for suitable boy, caste no bar, South Indian preferred, ideally doctor although will compromise for lawyer, chartered accountant, even dentist. Please send full biodata with returnable colour photograph to *******@gmail.com”.

  12. hairy_d,

    Try imagining him with a big moustache. There, does that help? 😉

    Data collection methodology consisting of a highly developed technique known as Kavi Eye for the Southie Guy has recently been employed in order to survey Y chromosomal manifestations in the south Indian setting. While a strong possibility for future Sendhil Ramamurthys appears to exist, the data indicates that the Mohanlal model of Y chromosomal transmission is endemic to the region. Further investigation into how Mohanlal consistently manages to land the hotties would contribute much to this body of research.

    Based on our work thus far, we suggest replacing Mohanlal with that young Prithviraj fellow, posthaste. Though samples taken from actual film viewings proved quite promising, flattering photos of the latter do not seem to exist. At present, additional research in Kodaikanal and on the streets of Singapore appears to be our only recourse.

  13. i’m guessing his mom doesn’t use the words ‘beta’ and ‘beti’…southie pride!! woohoo!! some of us may be short (although my dad is 6’1” and he’s the shortest of his brothers…), but who cares??? we got some hotties too. woohooooo!!

  16. Hairy_d,

    I do not think there is per se a typical South Asian man and woman.

    You may have point about the majority looks, as Kavita points out Mohanlal. But then how many white guys in your friendly town look like Sean Connery, Harrison Ford, Bratt Pitt either.

    Do you think Imran Khan looks South Asian or Rishi Kapoor from Bobbby Days or Dharmendra.

    I think Dharmendra and Imran Khan both made to world’s hot list for a long time, Imran Khan still does, but his political career is going nowhere.

  20. The teak tree gave you your body

    Someone took a fine chistle to that teak tree.

    While a strong possibility for future Sendhil Ramamurthys appears to exist, the data indicates that the Mohanlal model of Y chromosomal transmission is endemic to the region.

    What ARE you talking about. Take a trip down Tamil countryside. They look nothing like Mohanlal. Not that anything is seriously wrong with him. Tamil teenage boys have that lean chistled look that is extremely attractive even when they are dark. Then they grow that damn mustache. But people there prefer fairer Mohanlal and Kamal who look like they could afford to eat mutton everyday.

  21. dont be dissing kamal. i became a fan after seeing guna. that guy really takes care of himself. his legs had a lot of muscle , not flab.

    agree on the chiseled look. but i really think moustaches have a bad rap. i have facial hair myself.

  23. Boys, you can have your Lakshmi-the-cooking-show-host because us girls will have Ramamurthy-the-geneticist- professor-who-will-solve-the-mystery.

    Maybe there are some of us boys here who find this chap attractive as well…

  24. Just in case there’s ANY confusion about this WHATSOEVER, I’d like to state–as categorically as HTML can convey–that I am a boy who is ALL about the HoYay! with this one. I don’t just think he’s attractive: I’d like to tie him down, spread Nutella all over him, and then…

    Sorry, my keyboard caught fire. And for once, it wasn’t a battery issue.

    But I suspect that Anna knows what I’m talking about. 😉

  25. hairy_D- it’s funny how often Indian men and women who are considered attractive are said to look “not Indian” or like they could “pass” for something else. This guy definitely looks Indian, and South Indian at that. Sometimes I wonder if people making such comments have internalized an ugly stereotype of Indian people, so that anything attractive can’t possibly look Indian.

  26. not only does he look South Indian, but he wouldn’t be out of place at one of our family events.

    An obvious Machiavellian maneuver designed to get Taz and some female commenters (perhaps even pardesi gori but i won’t got there) to attend your family events. I’m onto you.

  28. An obvious Machiavellian maneuver designed to get Taz and some female commenters (perhaps even pardesi gori but i won’t got there) to attend your family events. I’m onto you.

    haha Oh I don’t care if it’s Machiavellian. Gautam, if the men in your family look like Sendhil, I’ll be your date to all the family functions… you’ll just have to excuse me if I wander off from time to time 😉

  29. An obvious Machiavellian maneuver designed to get Taz and some female commenters (perhaps even pardesi gori but i won’t got there) to attend your family events. I’m onto you. haha Oh I don’t care if it’s Machiavellian. Gautam, if the men in your family look like Sendhil, I’ll be your date to all the family functions… you’ll just have to excuse me if I wander off from time to time 😉

    I second Shruti. You can always count on me as a backup date in just such circumstances.

  30. wow. He’s hot (no arguement there) and he definitely looks South Asian to me. Instead of thinking that the dude doesn’t look desi, how about thinking that lots of populations around the world may look somewhat similar? Besides, India is a huge country, who’s to say what the ‘typical Indian’ looks like anyway?

    As for the nerd stereotype, he’s a hot nerd. 😉 Good looks + brains seems like a good combo to me.

  32. he doesn’t look like the ‘typical brown person’ cuz he’s very good looking (juding from secondary sexual characteristics, not intuition since i don’t dig the schlong). good looking people by definition don’t look typical, else they’d be average.

  33. he doesn’t look like the ‘typical brown person’ cuz he’s very good looking (juding from secondary sexual characteristics, not intuition since i don’t dig the schlong). good looking people by definition don’t look typical, else they’d be average.

    Then I think you mean to say “he doesn’t look like the ‘typical person'”

  34. Instead of thinking that the dude doesn’t look desi, how about thinking that lots of populations around the world may look somewhat similar?

    My organizing friends and I had this running gag where we said, “Everybody Looks South Asian from a distance.” (This stemmed from our days of registering desis to vote on campus/rallies/anywhere and you never really knew who to approach- so you just approached everyone that looked remotely desi- which surprisingly is ‘everybody.’)

    We wanted to make stickers with that slogan… 🙂 Ok, ok, I’m a geeky nerd, I know.

  35. ‘Then I think you mean to say “he doesn’t look like the ‘typical person'”‘

    that is true too. but since the poster in question was asserting he didn’t look south asian, i couched it in that context.

  36. btw, perhaps related, i read an article by a buff & athletic chinese american guy who resented it when women (usually asian american) asked he if he was half-white all the time.

  48. HELL. YES.

    MD (#117)

    He has excellent dentition.

    can we say that again?! he does have quite a nice set… 🙂

  50. Manju (#127):

    An obvious Machiavellian maneuver designed to get Taz and some female commenters (perhaps even pardesi gori but i won’t got there) to attend your family events. I’m onto you.

    What’s Machiavellian about it?