
Now that I'm a parent of Indian boys myself, I worry about the kinds of messages they're receiving from pop culture about their ethnicity. I blogged recently about the disconcerting presence of South Asians in movies based on of two my favorite children's books: Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory (creepy oompah-loompah) and The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe (evil dwarf). That's why, after I learned from Sepia Mutiny blogger Taz that a young hunk named Sendhil Ramamurthy (see photo above) was starring in the hit show, we taped NBC's new Sci-Fi drama Heroes.
I endured (and fast-forwarded through) scenes of gore, mutilation, and the sexual exploitation of a young mother so that the boys could see a handsome South Asian hero light up the screen. Ramamurthy's accent sounded hideously fake to my ears, and to my amazement I discovered that the actor was born in Illinois. I found myself wondering why they didn't write his character as an Indian-American sans accent OR hire an actor from India for the role. Did they go after an actor with American head and hand movements and other western non-verbals so that viewers would find him more heroic? The show's writers also gave his character two vocations that are both stereotypically Indian: the smart, mystical college professor and of course, the inevitable taxi cab driver. But now I'm being nitpicky. Lighten up, Mitali, I tell myself. At least he's not a scary sidekick. Beggars can't be choosers, especially when it comes to a mother's post-9/11 hunt for pop culture heroes who look like her sons.