Mo Banerjee (book character)

For the character from the movie, see Mo Banjaree.

Mo Banerjee
Friends:	Stella Penn Olivia Whitehead Charlie Hirsh (boyfriend, in love with, kissed, dating) Wen Gifford Naomi Fishmier (best friend) Lyle Dwarkin Rajeev Kumar (childhood friend) Selina Sinha (family friend)
Family:	Father Mother Madhu (little sister)
Enemies:	Ray Beech (former) Scott Pickett (ex-boyfriend, first kiss, former) Mudslide Crush Patty Norris Patty Keane Lynn Westerberg (Scott's old girlfriend) Mr. Brenigan Earl Decker
Occupations:	Assistant at Opequonsett Medical Clinic Worker at her family's Indian grocery store Student Member of the debate team Double bassist Mrs. Reznik's apprentice
Interests:	Politics Playing the double bass Getting straight A's Medicine Following the rules Pre-Calculus
Vulnerabilities:	Not fitting in with her peers Nerves whenever she's in trouble Biting her nails Stress headaches
Strengths:	Double bass Perfect grades Comforting others Fallowing the rules
Weaknesses:	Lying Getting into trouble Bad grades Disobeying her father Peer-pressure
Nicknames:	Mo (band mates, friends) Monu (mother, father) Hot Curry, Our Very Own Bass-Playing Benedict Arnold, My Very Own Buddy's Hindu-Honey Ex, His Former Dark-Skinned Delight (Ray Beech) Princess (Stella) The Queen of Clueless (herself)
First Appearance:	Lemonade Mouth

Mo Banerjee:

Mohini, or best known by her freinds as "Mo," has to be the prettiest, smartest, most popular, and not to mention the friendliest girl in the fictional town of Opequonsett, Rhode Island, where the book is set. A talented bass player, Mo strives for perfection, and that means impressing her strict father and struggling to deal with her romantic feelings towards the drummer in the band, Charlie Hirsh. She and Scott Pickett have a breif fling in the beginning, but ended the relationship immediately when she cought him making out with his old girlfriend, Lynn Westerberg. According to Mo, her father and mother are very strict and perhaps sometimes a little uptight, such as when she mentions that if she gets a detention or even kissed by a boy, they might disown her, but they soon lighten up to the idea of Mo's new-found independence and her love for Charlie, even thought they're not entirely fond about their daughter dating an American boy. After kssing Charlie at the end of the first book, Mo and Charlie date well into the summer between their freshman and sophomore year.

Personality:

Mo is portrayed as an intelligent, hard-working Indian girl who is from Calcutta, the land of arranged marraige. On top of her academic grades, she is soft-hearted, kind, sweet, beautiful and perhaps sometimes a little shy. Best friends with Charlie, she is also in love with him and cares for him, such as when she yells at her dad saying that she likes Charlie a lot and wishes to be with him, but at the same time doesn't want her dad miserable. Mo loves being able to fly free like a butterfly and is happy when she gets to spend time with her band mates, as they are the only people she feels she can be herself around, rather than at home, where her parents practically look over her shoulder every time she moves. Mo is very protective of her Hindu roots and hates to do anything to disappoint her parents and will do anything to make her mother and father proud. While dating Scott Pickett, Mo found herself struggling with peer pressure and Scott had his ways of manipulating the sweet but hard-working  Mo, such as persuading her to drink alcohol underage for the first time, convincing her into skipping class with him so they could make-out in the bushes behind the gym, and, worst of all, making her think that he was actually in love with her, but in reality, he was using her exotic beauty and kindness to make his ex-girlfriend, Lynn Westerberg, jealous. 

Appearance:

Mo is described as gorgeous, small, slim and dark skinned, with long, straight, shiny crow black hair and milk chocolate brown eyes. Mo is the girliest girl out of Olivia and Stella and just throws together dresses with blazers, skirts with T-shirts, and jeans with satin blouses at the last minute.

Story Lines:

Early Life:

In the book, Mo was born in Calcutta, India, but her parents moved to America to give their baby Indian princess a better life. Due to this, her mom and dad are a little Nazi-like and very strict with their daughter, who knows they just want her to be happy and have a good future. Since kindergarden, Mo became best friends with Naomi Fishmier, who aspires to be a journalist. Mo is part of many extra-carricular activities, such as debate team, double bass lessons and advanced classes. In reality, underneath that exotic beauty, you learn Mo is more than just a perfect, pretty little face whoes goal is to become Daddy's Little Girl: she wants independence, a song, and, most of all, a great boy to love her, like every other American girl. She has two romantic relationships: breifly dating popular, all star soccer jock Scott Pickett until she discovers he was hooking up with his ex-girlfriend, and officially going out with her bandmate and best friend, Charlie Hirsh, who's harbored a ginormous crush on her since elementary school. From the beginning of her freshman year of high school, Mo made it her soul perpous to do whatever it took to make her parents happy and proud of her.

Book 1:

Mo is introduced as a popular student at Opequonsett High who is dating the school's heartthrob soccer player, Scott Pickett, who is the drummer of popular local rock band, Mudslide Crush. Later, while the two are making out in the bushes, Mo and Scott are caught by a teacher, and the two end up getting detention.

In the detention room, Mo, Olivia, Stella, Charlie and Wen are fooling around by playing a song heard in a radeo comercial. The next day, expecting to be in trouble, Mo and the others are shocked that Mrs. Reznik wants them to form a band. Mo, busy with her boyfriend, A.P classes, bass intructions with Mrs. Reznik and working at her family's Indian grocery store, refuses to do so.

A couple days later, Mo gets called down to Bruno's Pizza Planet by Stella, who wants to form the band. Mo is unsure about this, but finally agrees if everyone else would do it, too.

At rehearsal, the five don't get along, but soon learn how to work together.

That night, Mo is at a begining-of-the-year party for Mudslide Crush, with Scott. While making out, Mo over-hears Ray Beech talking to his girlfriend, Patty Norris, about a band cutting Mudslide Crush's set at the school's Halloween Bash short. Mo asks Scott what's going on, and Scott tells Mo about how Stella convinced Brenigan, the vice-principal, to let Stella, Mo, Olivia, Charlie and Wen perform at the Bash. Mo asks Scott if he knows who's in this band and he simply says, "I only heard about Stella and that loser Charlie Hirsh. Oh, and Olivia Whitehead. Now there's a real whack-job." Mo, upset that Scott insulted her band mates the way he did, simply says she's one of those freaks and she doesn't care what Ray and his friends think because she came to enjoy participating in the band. The two begin to fight, but make up after kissing each other.

After the band can't decide on a name, rumors fly about them cutting Mudslide Crush's show. Ray Beech is revealed to be the school bully and he is supossedly making Olivia's life a living hell by constantly picking on her on a daily ruitine. Realizing this, Mo and Charlie confront Ray, demanding that he leave Olivia alone, only to get their own share of insults thrown at them, along with Ray calling Mo a "Bass-Playing Benedict Arnold." Stella joins the fight and defends them by spitting her lemonade in Ray's face, which results in the name "Lemonade Mouth."

Mo's father soon becomes concerned about his daughter spending time with Charlie, afriad that they might be getting serius. Mo is skeptical and assures her dad she has no feeling for Charlie what so ever.

A few days before the Bash, Mo and the others discover that the Mel's Organic Frozen Lemonade machine will be getting removed from school property due to a deal with a soda company sponsoring for the new gym.

Later, Mo tearfully tells Charlie that Scott dumped her for his old girlfriend, Lynn Westerberg.

At the Bash, the band members take the stage and everybody is impressed by their new sound and unique style in music and how they got it put together. Stella makes a speach opposing the decisions for the school, and Brenigan shuts thems down.

Later, Mo and the others go to Olivia's house to comfort her after one of her cats, Nancy, dies. After worrying about what Brenigan will do to them, they spill out their troubles. Mo admits that she feels that she doesn't belong anywhere because she was born in India and got brought up in an American culture.

The fallowing Monday, Mo and her friends get called down to Brenigan's office, where he tells them that they were incidating people when Stella made her speach. He doesn't susspend them, but gives them a week of detention and forbids them from performing in any school activities.

Later, to Mo's horror, she discovers she is in love with Charlie, and from then on, swears to God on her mother's grave that she is done with the lying and sneaking around behind her parents' backs. Lyle Dwarkin, Charlie's friend, helps them out by selling Lemonade Mouth CD's and getting them a gig at Bruno's Pizza Planet, which skyrockets their popularity. But as things get brighter for Lemonade Mouth, things start falling apart. Piece by Piece. One disaster at a time. It starts with Mo getting sick with a fever of hundred and two. She gets a call from Stella on the day of battle of the bands, Catch a RI-Zing Star, who informs her that the Mel's machine at the middle school is going to be removed. On her way out of the house, Mo and her dad get into a heated fight, and Mo shouts that although she respects her parents, she will never by perfect and states that she loves Charlie as more than a friend and would not want to do anything to hurt him.

At the Opequonsett Middle School, the band members get into an argument with the men removing the machine. Police arrive and the group is arrested.

At Catch a RI-Zing Star, Mo and the others attempt to perform one of their songs, but nobody could play due to their injuries. As they start to leave, the kids in the audience start to sing the song and give Lemonade Mouth a standing ovation.

Later on, Mo's parents tell her they will try to accept her new-found independence. Mo tells Charlie that she is in love with him, kisses him, and the two begin dating.

Book 2:

In the second book, Mo and Charlie are an official couple. Mo soon learns that her old next door neighbor, Rajeev Kumar, is going to be staying with her and her family for six weeks to get used to life in America. He and Mo hit it off, talking about their love for music, plans to go their own path and not wanting to end up getting married at the age of eighteen. Their constant spending time together worries Charlie, who begins to get jealous and ends up confronting Mo. Mo assures him, but Charlie is still feeling insecure. He later apologizes to Mo for his hostile behavior. When Lemonade Mouth ends up becoming clients for Earl Decker, a highly demanding music agent, they are initially excited about this: the idea of sold out tours and albums. The kids agree to do an ad, but immediately change their minds when they learn the ad is being used to make Lemonade Mouth into something that's not normal, but flawless, with the people turning Mo's eyes green. They somehow manage to stand up for themselves and show that they are like the second generation of Lady Gaga and after Stella says nobody will own Lemonade Mouth, they do exactly what Taylor Swift did: walk away, and become successful without the money and designer clothes. They eventually clear things up with Mudslide Crush, settling all rifts between the two bands.

Quotes:

Um. . . . fine. . . Baba.

Scott Pickett don't be such an arrogant jerk!

It was a kiss. And you want to know how it felt?

He's cute. Does he like you?

How can you tell?

What's the matter with you, Ray? You're acting like a complete creep! Was it you who sent us that mobeil thing downstairs? Wait until Scott finds out about this!

What's going on here Ray?

Let me go, Baba! Stop pushing me! And stop trying to make me into your pefect little Bengali girl! That's not who I am! It's not who I'll ever be!

Okay, we get it, but shouldn't Lemonade Mouth's message come from us? The band?

I mean, it's not like we're really a product, right? Like a pair of sneakers or something?