 Initial critical reviews of Sholay were negative . Among contemporary critics , <unk> <unk> of India Today called the film a " dead <unk> " and " a <unk> flawed attempt " . Filmfare said that the film was an unsuccessful <unk> of Western style with Indian milieu , making it an " imitation western — neither here nor there . " Others labelled it as " sound and <unk> signifying nothing " and a " second @-@ rate take @-@ off " of the 1971 film Mera <unk> Mera <unk> . Trade journals and <unk> initially called the film a flop . In a 1976 article in the journal Studies : An Irish Quarterly Review , author Michael Gallagher praised the technical achievement of the film , but otherwise criticised it stating , " As a spectacle it breaks new ground , but on every other level it is intolerable : <unk> , incoherent , superficial in human image , and a somewhat nasty piece of violence " . 
