GUNGA DIN

'''Gunga Din''' (1892) is one of Rudyard Kipling's most famous poems, perhaps best known for its often-quoted last line, "You're a better man than I am, Gunga Din!"^[1] The poem is a rhyming narrative from the point of view of a British soldier, about a native water-bearer who saves his life. Like several other Kipling poems, it celebrates the virtues of a non-European while portraying a colonial infantryman's view of such people as being of a "lower order".

Contents

Film

Influence

References

Film

Main articles: Gunga Din (film)

The poem inspired a 1939 adventure film from RKO Radio Pictures starring Cary Grant, Victor McLaglen, Douglas Fairbanks Jr., Joan Fontaine, and Sam Jaffe in the title role.
A much shorter ''animated'' version of the poem and film was made as an episode of ''The Famous Adventures of Mr. Magoo'', with the beloved ultra-myopic character in the title role. He was voiced, as always, by Jim Backus.

Influence

The name "Gunga Din" is sometimes used in the musical instrument world; brass instruments, particularly bugles, of low or questionable quality produced in India are often called "Gunga Din" horns, as well as "junkers", or more appropriately, "wall-hangers".
A novelty record called ''The Last Blasted of the Blasted Bugler'' was recorded by Sonny Gianotta.[1]
"The Ballad of Gunga Din" was recorded by Jim Croce in 1966. The song appears on the albums ''Facets'' (1966) and ''The Faces I've Been'' (1975).
"Gunga Din" is also the title of a 1969 song by The Byrds written by Gene Parsons.
The band UFO on their album ''Flying'' (1971) taped backwards the last lines of the poem at the end of the title track.
''The Gunga Din Highway'' is also a novel by Frank Chin, the polemical Chinese American playwright and fiction writer who deals with themes of "authentic" Asian American identity.
The famous last line is also used in a song titled "Gunga Din" on the 1998 solo album ''Dreamcatcher'' by Deep Purple vocalist Ian Gillan.
The movie was also referenced in a song by Bob Dylan called You Ain't Goin' Nowhere^[2].
The alternative rock band Bloodhound Gang's 1995 song "Legend in My Spare Time" included the lines, "When I'm feelin' Oriental, I gotta rub my chin, I'm gonna hold my water in like I'm Gunga Din."
A 2003–2004 presidential campaign song ended in, "Your a better man than he is, Howard Dean."
The song "That's The Way Love Is'", written and performed by popular vocalist Bobby Darin (recorded 1958), features the lyrics, "If you come up with the answer / You're a better man, sir, / Than I, Gunga Din."
American radio host Howard Stern had an intern in charge of bringing him water and broccoli, Steve Grillo, whom Howard often referred to as Gunga Din.
The Gunga Dins, a Springfield, Illinois, alternative/punk band, takes its name from the poem's title.
In the HBO drama ''The Sopranos'', Livia Soprano complains about her neighbor in the retirement community using too much water, saying, "I'm living next door to Gunga Din!"
The poem is parodied as "Gunga Dot" on an episode of ''Animaniacs''.
The 2006 movie The Contract made frequent reference to Gunga Din.
In the soulful revamped version of "Wizard of Oz", called "The Wiz", the Witch enslaves the cowardly lion and makes him carry the dreaded water from her palace. When Dorothy finds him, he says "I feel like Gunga Din!"
During the "Magnificent Muttley" theme song of the cartoon "Dastardly and Muttley in Their Flying Machines", Dick Dastardly melodically tells Muttley, "You're not Robin Hood, and you're not Gunga Din."
Forward Prize-winning poet, Daljit Nagra parodies his own frequent use of Indian accents, in the poem "Booking Khan Singh Kumar", when he asks, "Should I read for you straight or Gunga Din this gig?"

References

1. http://famouspoetsandpoems.com/poets/rudyard_kipling/poems/14458
2. http://everything2.com/index.pl?node_id=1290848


★ George Robinson: ''Gunga Din'' (article on the 1939 Hollywood film). Soldiers of the Queen (journal of the Victorian Military Society). September 1994.