Where's the authentic desi accent!

For those of you who have ever watched Heroes, surely know that the series has a reasonably prominent desi angle-presented to you as a father and son duo, who are Professors in Genetics from Chennai University. Dad Chandra Suresh (played by Erick Avari) and sonny Mohinder Suresh (you know it girls, Sendhil 'heart-throb' Ramamurthy). The story has the Dad proposing a certain theory of evolution, with a strange touch of out-worldly mystique put together in a book named "Activating Evolution"-disappears and dear beta sets out to search for him. And nothing to your surprise, drives a cab once he lands in NYC. Streotypical, hmm, very much-but still significant footage is dedicated to Mohinder's character. Sounds good, yeah-well, no! That's the problem-they don't sound "good"!

So, Mohinder talks in an accent which is a very strange amalgam of desi, amreekan and Brit accents. By his own admission, Sendhil was asked to adapt a British accent.

“The producers wanted a very specific accent. I did an Indian accent, and I listened to tapes to develop it. Then they came back and said the guy was educated in English, so it should be a British accent, with a lilt of Indian. My accent changes throughout the pilot a bit, because then they wanted it to be predominantly English. It’s kind of been a work in progress. So now, it’s very English with Indian hints.” ( See Nirali for more).

Now, people like me who are born and brought up in India find this very perplexing. Most of the higher education in India is in English, but i haven't seen anyone educated in India in recent few decades, talk in British accent ever. What were the producers of Heroes thinking?

Further, y'days episode (and few more before that), featured Erick Avari playing Chandra Suresh, who very dreadfully pronounces his name as "Chaandraaa Surrreshh" with a distinct Amreekan accent. There is nothing Indian about his accent, whatsoever!! Few people even disputed if he looks Indian enough-well, to put those troubled minds to rest, he has Indian roots. But couldn't the actor have made some effort at getting the accent even a bit right.

From the desi perspective, Kavi Ladnier was the saving grace. She got her accent reasonably right and her dress and make-up were also very authentic. Wish there were more of her and wish she would inspire some authenticity :).

Hmm, so either we have the strange mutilated accents passed off for desi accent or forced British/Amreekan accent....."what is a desi accent anyway, with so many regional twists", says the critic. Grrrrrrrrrr, desi accent is one of the sweetest, got it-so better get it right.