 <unk> and <unk> note that , although the film borrowed heavily from the Hollywood Western genre , particularly in its visuals , it was successfully " <unk> " . As an example , William van der <unk> has compared a massacre scene in Sholay with a similar scene in Once Upon a Time in the West . Although both films were similar in technical style , Sholay emphasised Indian family values and melodramatic tradition , while the Western was more <unk> and restrained in its approach . <unk> Rao , in Encyclopedia of Hindi Cinema , notes that Sholay <unk> the style of the Western genre into a " <unk> ethos " . Ted Shen of the Chicago Reader notes Sholay 's " hysterical visual style " and intermittent " populist message " . Cultural critic and Islamist scholar <unk> <unk> <unk> the film in his book The Secret Politics of Our <unk> : Innocence , <unk> and Indian Popular Cinema , both for its caricature and stereotyping of Muslim and women characters , and for what he calls mockery of innocent villagers . <unk> notes that the two most prominent Muslim characters in the film are Soorma Bhopali ( a <unk> criminal ) , and an <unk> victim of the bandits ( the imam ) . Meanwhile , the sole function of one female character ( Radha ) is to suffer her fate in silence , while the other female lead ( Basanti ) is just a garrulous village <unk> . 
