Mohinder Suresh is a fictional character on the NBC drama Heroes who is portrayed by actor Sendhil Ramamurthy. He is from Chennai, Tamil Nadu, India and is a genetics professor at the University of Madras. Mohinder is attempting to find the truth behind the sudden death of his father, Chandra Suresh (Erick Avari), and to continue his father's research of finding "superhuman" beings on Earth. In character, Suresh also provides many episodes with opening or closing dialogue, general philosophical musings in relation to the events that occur during the episode.
The role of Mohinder was written to be a 55-year-old geneticist looking for super-powered humans. However, Ramamurthy's audition was so convincing that the main character part was rewritten for a younger geneticist following in his father's footsteps. The concept of the older geneticist was rewritten into Chandra.
Character history
Genesis After hearing news of his father's death in New York, Mohinder suspects that his father was murdered to silence the findings of his genetics research.
Mohinder travels to Brooklyn, where he rents his father's apartment. Although it is in disarray, much of the material is discovered and Mohinder begins to reorganize it. To makes ends meet during his lengthy stay, Mohinder takes a job as a taxi driver, eventually picking up a passenger named Peter Petrelli, who asks him about "being special." Although Mohinder is slow to realize what Peter means, he eventually talks to him about genetics and evolution. Afterward, Mohinder gets another passenger, Mr. Bennet. He begins to ask Mohinder personal questions, referencing personal details such as his teaching position in India. Startled, Mohinder abandons the cab and runs away.
In the second episode, Mohinder discovers that his father had compiled a program to find the "special people."
Mohinder finds a man in his father's apartment who claims he is an exterminator, but Mohinder quickly realizes that the man is planting an eavesdropping device. The man pulls a gun, and after a struggle that leads out into the apartment hallway, a girl picks up the gun asking, "If you're the exterminator, why do you have a gun holster?", prompting the man to quickly leave. The girl, Eden McCain, introduces herself as a friend of Mohinder's father and expresses enthusiasm about his theories on genetics.
Mohinder and Eden discover a portable hard drive in his father's pet's cage. The hard drive appears to have all the genetic research that his father had done on tracking those with special abilities.
Mohinder also learns that his father seems to have had a falling out with a man named Sylar. Chandra believes Sylar to be "Patient Zero." According to Eden, via a recorded telephone message, Chandra seems to want nothing to do with the strange man.
Mohinder soon accidentally uncovers a small book hidden in a compartment. As he and Eden thumb through the leather notebook, they discover a list of names, apparently of people all across the globe that possess "abilities." The name "Sylar" pops up and they discover his New York address. They also find a key in the book.
They make their way to his apartment.Clarification needed - to whose apartment? They knock, but there's no answer. Mohinder produces the key from the book that doesn't fit. Unable to gain access, he pulls out a screwdriver and picks the lock. Both enter a very neat kitchen with a teacup resting on the table. Mohinder takes pictures.
Mohinder tracks down Nathan Petrelli to question him about whether he might be one of the "special people" his father was researching. Nathan, who is busy running in a congressional election, does not listen to Mohinder but tells Peter about him. Peter then makes the connection between Mohinder and his father's book and then visits Mohinder's apartment. Because Peter cannot demonstrate any powers without another "special person" being there for him to mimic, they set out to visit Isaac, who Peter says can paint the future. Unfortunately, Isaac is strung out on heroin and refuses to open the door.
On the subway ride back, time suddenly freezes for everyone but Peter, who meets a future version of Hiro. When time unfreezes in "Hiros," Peter tells Mohinder about the encounter, but Mohinder is now convinced that Peter is crazy. Mohinder makes a decision: he will return to Madras with his father's ashes. Peter tries to convince him otherwise but to no avail.
In "Seven Minutes to Midnight," Mohinder returns to India to scatter his father's ashes. He debates whether to return to his job as a college professor. Mohinder talks with his mother about her decision to let his father go to the United States to look for people with superhuman abilities. She tells him for the first time about his sister, Shanti, who died when she was five and Mohinder was two. Shanti was "special", according to her mother, and their father loved her so much that he was afraid Mohinder would find his love for his son wanting in comparison. Mohinder also has a series of prophetic dreams, depicting a young Indian boy who guides him to various scenes showing his parents arguing and showing his father's murder. Mohinder later finds a file with a photo of the boy, named Sanjog Iyer, in his father's office.
In the episode "Homecoming," Mohinder locates Sanjog playing soccer and questions him about his visions. The young boy tells Mohinder that troubled people seek him out in their dreams, not the other way around. Sanjog also tells Mohinder that he already has the answers he seeks. Mohinder then decides to continue his father's research and accesses his father's computer files, using the password "Shanti". The files contain the names of all of the people with superpowers that Chandra Suresh had located. Mohinder tells his mother that he plans to return to New York, and that he wants to seek out people with special powers to tell them of their abilities.
Upon returning to New York, Mohinder began preparations to warn the people on Chandra Suresh's list of Sylar, as a number of those on the list had already been killed by the telekinetic serial killer. Shortly after, he received a phone call from Eden. She was going to explain everything after she "made things right" by killing Sylar, who she knew killed Chandra Suresh.
Two weeks later, Mohinder learns of Eden's suicide. An officer comes by to talk with Eden's former neighbors. He asks Mohinder if he knew a woman named Sarah Ellis, to which he replies that she was on the list, he had tried unsuccessfully to locate her in LA, and had never met her before. The officer then shows him a picture of a woman identified as Sarah Ellis and Mohinder tells him that he knew her by a different name: Eden McCain.
Later, Mr. Bennet appears at the apartment. Bennet wants Mohinder's help in finding people with abilities and "making a difference." When Mohinder refuses, Bennet asks if Mohinder is on the list, a question he sidesteps with no answer. Mohinder says he isn't interested in helping Bennet, but Bennet leaves his card anyway.
Nathan Petrelli approaches Mohinder who quickly apologizes for coming off as "a raving lunatic" when they first met. Nathan has come to Mohinder in an attempt to help his brother, Peter Petrelli. They begin talking, and Nathan explains that Peter is afraid of causing an explosion.with his powers? Mohinder, in turn, explains Peter's unique, "sponge"-like superpowers to Nathan. Mohinder also states that he may be able to help with Peter's condition if he is able to test Peter. However, Nathan is reluctant to let Mohinder come into contact with Peter, fearing that Mohinder will "feed into [Peter's] paranoia." Still, Mohinder insists, and they leave to find Peter. When they find Peter at his apartment, he "has no time to be [Mohinder's] guinea pig." Recently, Mohinder has called many of those found on his father's list. To his discouragement, no one believed him until he received a return call from Zane Taylor. He went to meet with Zane and get a DNA sample, but, unknown to him, encountered Sylar at Zane's residence. Sylar, posing as Zane, teamed up with Mohinder, claiming that he could help.
Mohinder, who has known for some time that Sylar was posing as Zane, drugs him when they return to Mohinder's apartment. He straps Sylar to a chair and hooks him up to an I.V., filled with curare, a liquid that prevents Sylar from using his powers. Mohinder almost shoots Sylar, but Sylar persuades him not to do it. Mohinder realizes that he needs Sylar alive for a few more minutes so he can continue his research. Sylar breaks free and tells Mohinder that he had stopped the I.V. long ago, and that Mohinder did not notice because he was so involved in his research. At the end of the episode, Peter finds a bloodied Mohinder pinned to the ceiling. Mohinder is just barely able to reveal that Sylar is standing behind Peter before Peter is attacked.
As Peter and Sylar fight, Mohinder is released from the ceiling. He manages to ram the map into Sylar, knocking him out and taking out the body of Peter but not before taking the List as well. He later takes the body to the Petrelli's mansion. Later on, Thompson arrives at Mohinder's apartment to convince him to work with Primatech, offering him vast resources to do research but Mohinder is more concerned with stopping Sylar. Thompson says they both have the same interests and asks him to join forces. Then Thompson tells him of Molly Walker and her sickness and power. Mohinder goes immediately to see her. Mohinder learns that she can stop Sylar by tracking him, but needs to cure her sickness of nerve deterioration. Mohinder discovers that his sister, Shanti, had the same illness and died of it, and that his father had found a cure for it without telling anyone. Mohinder researches and discovers that by giving Molly his own functioning antibodies, it will restore her humoral immune response.
Later, Noah Bennet and Matt Parkman come into the building. Molly tells Mohinder that Matt is there. Through the surveillance camera, they see Mr. Bennet and Parkman approaching the room. Bennet wants to kill Molly to protect Claire, but Mohinder will not let him. Matt Parkman ceases the potential gunfire and Mohinder escapes the building with Molly, Micah Sanders, Niki Sanders, and D.L. Hawkins.
Generations
Four months after the incident in New York, Mohinder has been giving speeches about superhumans and a fatal virus that affects only these special beings. At one of his speeches in Cairo, he is approached by a mysterious man named Bob, who offers him a job at The Company. Mohinder accepts the offer; he and Noah Bennet are planning to take down The Company from the inside, and his speeches had just been bait.
Mohinder is assigned to find the Haitian by the Company. He travels to Port-au-Prince in Haiti where he finds the Haitian and cures him of the Shanti virus. Mohinder later tells the Haitian to meet with Noah Bennet, to join the crusade to take down the Company. After his trip to Haiti, Mohinder returns to his apartments, where he and Matt Parkman have become adoptive fathers to Molly Walker. Mohinder informs Parkman that he will be working in New York for a while trying to take down the Company.