Reveries

‘Cumberbitten’ but not ‘Sherlocked’

The ‘Cumber’ flu has taken over half the world now. Look no further than the Olympic opening ceremony and you will hear Benedict Cumberbatch’s deep voice declare: “Let the games commence”!  Commemorating the actor’s birthday on the 19^th of July a leading daily devoted an entire page analysing why so many girls have been ‘cumberbitten’. The BBC series Sherlock of course formed the highlight of the piece. As an i-phone toting, tech savvy, twenty-first century Holmes in a chic overcoat and scarf, Cumberbatch has supposedly transformed this ice-cold detective into the ‘sexiest’ thing on television. Frankly, I was rather amused to hear this.

Cumberbatch as Holmes (left); Sidney's Paget's illustration in the original stories (right)

I find Cumberbatch’s Sherlock quite melodramatic but definitely not sexy. His striking good looks are rather distracting – not quite Holmesian. In my mind’s eye, Holmes’s tall, thin form with piercing eyes and hawk-like nose, never quite spells ‘handsome’. And then there is Benedict’s breathless dialogue delivery. The actor and the writers tell you that it captures the lightening speed of Holmes’s deduction and his brilliant but utterly impatient mind.

However, the stories always paint a different picture of the detective for me. Yes, Holmes is edgy and debilitatingly rude at times. He cuts off Watson’s florid description of a lichen-covered wall with “cut the poetry, Watson. I note that it was a high wall”. But when it comes to retracing his deductive trail for mere mortals like Watson or Lestrade, he does it with a slow, deliberate relish. The series could have retained that aspect.  After all, the director brilliantly portrays Holmes’s supersonic deductive speed through the texts that flare up on screen, while Sherlock’s single glance culls a person’s minutest details.

Cumberbatch’s Sherlockian mannerisms too are over-the-top. Holmes has a touch of the dramatic. In the book he gleefully springs up from his chair after inventing a chemical test for detecting old bloodstains.And Watson tells us that he “bowed as if to some appalauding crowd conjured by his imagination”. But this twenty first-century Sherlock carries such eccentric flashes to the extreme. A Sherlock, who jumps up and down on the couch or sniffs up a client’s smoke rings, because Watson has confiscated his cigarettes; looks clownish; not delightfully eccentric.

I don’t want to carp. The series has many merits and not least of them is the Sherlock-Watson relationship. Martin Freeman is not the overawed, subservient sidekick of the black and white Sherlock Holmes movies. This new-age army doctor is more of an equal player with an assertive persona and a cheeky sense of humour. My  favourite is the scene where Holmes asks a puzzled Watson to punch him in the face.

Holmes snaps:  “PUNCH ME-IN THE FACE - didn’t you hear me?"

Watson retorts: “I always hear ‘PUNCH ME IN THE FACE’ when you speak. But that's USUALLY  SUBTEXT” 

The creatives transcribe Holmes and Watson's underlying affection with commendable subtlety. Particularly memorable is the scene where Holmes rushes to tear apart the explosives Moriarty had strapped on Watson. The  detective, who had proclaimed to Moriarty that he does not have a heart, morphs into a heartwarming friend the moment Moriarty leaves. As Sherlock awkwardly acknowledges John's bravery, one is reminded of  the scene in Doyle's The Three Garridebs when Watson is shot by a criminal and Holmes exclaims: "You're not hurt, Watson? For God's sake, say that you are not hurt!" Moved by this rare display of emotion, Watson remarks: "It was worth a wound - it was worth many wounds - to know the depth of loyalty and love that lay behind that cold mask"  
And it is this "depth of loyalty and love" that is revealed in the  final phone conversation between Holmes and Watson in the series. As Holmes prepares for his fatal leap in the last episode of Sherlock Season 2, Cumberbatch’s quavering voice and slight facial twitch, expose a carefully repressed human side of this consulting detective.Ironically, much like Holmes's sentimental side, Cumberbatch's acting prowess finds only a fleeting display in Sherlock. 

During his decade long career prior to Sherlock, Cumberbatch essayed characters that showcased his talent way better than this BBC series. In the series The Last Enemy he played Stephen Ezard - an obsessive, socially awkward, mathematician who is sucked into a political maelstrom. Shorn of exaggerated gestures, forming the  hallmark of "Sherlock", Benedict made Ezard's bewilderment and vulnerability terrifyingly palpable.And in Hawking, Benedict portrayed the scientist’s grit and agony with heartrending realism. Ironically, the performance that has made him a household name, lacks these very qualities.  

Finally, much has been made of the actor’s baritone. His deep, sexy voice hooks ‘cumberbitches’ even to  fifteen-minute-long car commercials. I plead guilty to the ‘sin’ as well. His incredible voice modulation can transport you to the World War I battlefield or to the verudous realm of Keats’s Nightingale, with equal ease. But his off-screen persona is no less impressive. His smartness and erudition stand out when he talks about his roles. Just listen to him speaking about the shattering of chivalric ideal during World War I, in one of his interviews on War Horse, and you would know what I mean. And of course one can’t help adoring someone who can respond to abuses like ‘horse-faced and arse-named’ with “that’s what I have been born and blessed with”. So at the risk of crafting the cheesiest sign-off, I admit that I am ‘cumberbitten’ but not quite ‘Sherlocked’!