Dhruv Ghanekar, one among an array of Indian composers reinterpreting the Beatles’ songs for The Beatles and India, on the journey
Dhruv Ghanekar
Rendering two songs in the recently released The Beatles and India, a film that traces the time spent by the celebrated band during its prolonged stay in a Rishikesh Ashram back in 1968, Dhruv Ghanekar is among a series of Indian composers who contributed to the mammoth album. The film, which won the title for Best Music at the UK Asian Film Festival, includes songs by Karsh Kale, Benny Dayal, Lisa Mishra, Farhan Akhtar and Nikhil D’Souza, among others.
Ghanekar, who was appointed to create Julia and Love you to, says, “It took a while to arrive at the first track. Every one, and their grandmothers, know the songs by the Beatles. I approached them with trepidation. Julia is a song that [John Lenon] wrote to his mother. While the original song is acoustic, mine is electronic. The idea was to offer a musical adventure for listeners,” says the composer-guitarist, adding that he grew up on a steady appetite of the band’s music. “My parents gave me a 120-minute mixtape of their songs, and for about four years, I would just play it on loop. It formed the soundtrack of my childhood. For a band that started off as a bubblegum pop group, it’s amazing that they became deeper and darker, instead of being drawn to the regular commercial fare.”
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If he had it his way, Ghanekar says an Indian composer whose work he’d like to recreate, were he offered a similar opportunity, is OP Nayyar. “He is such a great music director, and has some amazing songs from the ’50s. Hum dum mere is one that I’d love to [revisit].”
Meanwhile, Ghanekar is earning accolades for his work on the Jimmy Nelson Foundation film, Save Our Sentinels, a powerful visual commentary on the cultural identity of the last 36 indigenous tribes. “It is a follow up to a film that we did two years ago. We had an edit of all his photographs stitched together [to create a] fast-paced [visual]. It became one of the most awarded campaigns. It celebrates diversity between the cultures.”
Composing for a project based on stock images is unlike that associated with any motion picture. Ghanekar admits that he had to make it sound “wholesome”, instead of a piece that appears to “jump all over the place”. “Because it wasn’t conventional story-telling, I wanted the music to be one continuous sound that sits on top of the picture, but one that could also work [as a standalone creation].” In keeping with the multi-cultural theme, the music was recorded in different parts of the world.
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