Arthur Conan Doyle’s fictional detective Sherlock Holmes never set foot in India but if he had, what kind of music would we have been greeted with upon his arrival? Music composer Mahesh Raghavan has a suggestion.
Raghavan has given a Carnatic spin to the original opening theme of the television series Sherlock, which has been composed by David Arnold and Michael Price. The popular British television crime drama stars Benedict Cumberbatch as the sleuth and Martin Freeman as his sidekick John Watson.
In the short music piece titled “Sherlock Opening Theme – The Ultimate Indian Version”, Raghavan, with the aid of an app on his iPad, uses the flute, tanpura, cymbals, Indian drums and nadaswaram to create a sound that is unmistakably Indian.
Here is the original opening theme music of Sherlock for comparison.
Raghavan has previously tuned Adele’s song “Hello” from her music album 25 (2015), and even converted the theme of the television series Game of Thrones into Indian classical music.
Raghavan isn’t the first composer to tinker with the Sherlock theme. In 2014, another musician, Tushar Lall, gave it a spin with live tabla percussion and accompanying flute in “BBC Sherlock Theme – The Indian Jam Project”.
