Gunga Din
Starring: Cary Grant, Douglas Fairbanks Jnr, Victor McLaglen
Director: George Stevens
The film: 'Gunga Din is Tripe', ran an eye-catching headline in the Hongkong Telegraph on February 2, 1940. It was a quote attributed to Ram Bagal, a now forgotten Hollywood-based Indian filmmaker interviewed in Shanghai en route to the subcontinent, where his opinion was at the time far from unusual. Gunga Din had by then already been banned in India (and in Malaya), where it fuelled riots and demonstrations amid accusations of caricature and inaccuracy.
Depictions of the Kali-worshipping cult of Thuggee (whence originates the English word 'thug') and its bloodthirsty practices in particular were criticised as distorted and ill informed. Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom, which also depicted Thuggee activity and followed Gunga Din's plotline closely in places, was similarly banned in India in the 1980s.
Elsewhere, taken at face value as escapist high drama, Gunga Din was an enormous commercial success, with only Gone with the Wind as a higher box office earner among films made in 1939 (generally considered Hollywood's finest year with other releases including The Wizard of Oz, Stagecoach, Mr Smith Goes to Washington and Wuthering Heights). It was also popular with Hongkongers, and enjoyed at least two runs at the 1,800-seat Alhambra Theatre on Nathan Road before the outbreak of the second world war.