This film is incredibly racist, from the colonizer's perspective, and it doesn't exactly respect women. Unsurprisingly, Rudyard Kipling - who wrote the poem that this film was based upon - was an imperialist. That being said and acknowledged, I am a Cary Grant fan and the humor & adventure really worked for me. I enjoyed this film while being hyperaware of its faults. Here's a reddit comment that I appreciated which shares further perspective on the film: https://tinyurl.com/45yp9etk

There are a number of problems with this film. Chief among them are the racism and the sexism, but there's also the problem that it's a comedy/adventure yet the comedy isn't funny and the adventure isn't exciting.

Whereas I can understand why it was considered a good movie at its time, it has, to my mind, not aged well. The slapstick humour is rather silly, the story is rather naive and much of the movie is rather racist from today’s perspective. While there are some movies of that period that I really like, this one is not my cup of tea. Too artificial, too pathetic and with a humour from another century.

Had some really fun moments, especially the time spent with the three principals. Their easy camaraderie was fun to watch and the humor often held up to modern sensibilities. What doesn't hold up, of course, was the racism and colonialism and that all made this significantly less fun to watch.

While the racism is problematic, this really is a rollicking action/adventure bromance with undeniable chemistry among the three leads.