When the population of southern India fell in love with spaghetti westerns in the 1960s, local film-makers scrambled to pay homage to low-budget Italian-produced hits such as The Good, the Bad and the Ugly.

The result was the "Curry Western", a genre that blended Clint Eastwood-esque grit with romantic Bollywood song and dance numbers and conservative Indian values. In the 1970s its exponents produced some of the most popular works in world cinema, and some releases ran for years.

The format fell from grace in the 1980s, but now the Curry Western has ridden back into town. Today marks the release of Quick Gun Murugun, a parody that harks back to the glory years of India's celluloid cowboys.

The film's eponymous star, billed as "a sincere South Indian cowboy" and kitted out in an emerald green silk shirt, leopard print waistcoat and dude ranch duds, first appeared in an advert for a music television channel 15 years ago.

On the small screen his one-liners – "First I'll finish the sambar [a spicy soup beloved of south Indians], then I'll finish you!" – helped win him a cult following across the subcontinent.

His transition to the big screen – played by Rajendra Prasad, a veteran of "Tollywood" (the Telugu-language film industry) – may well repeat the feat. Already the film, which tells the story of a cowboy who protects cows by promoting vegetarianism, has won positive reviews from some of India's harshest critics. Aamir Khan, a Bollywood megastar not known for lavishing praise, lauded the film on his blog this week.

Quick Gun already has a record of wooing Indian cinema audiences. Shah Rukh Khan, Bollywood's most popular male lead, played a character based on the cowboy in a small scene in the romance Om Shanti Om two years ago. The film was the biggest Bollywood hit of the year.

But Quick Gun has a massive task on its hands if it is to better the performance of the quintessential Curry Western blockbuster – Sholay, possibly the most popular film ever made.

Initially dismissed by critics as unremarkable, the tale of love and revenge in village India become a slow-burner hit of epic proportions in 1975. In one Mumbai cinema it played non-stop for five years and audiences cued for kilometres for tickets.

When it was first shown on Indian television in 1994 it is said the streets were deserted across the country.

Critics widely agree that the success of Sholay was built on the popularity of earlier American-produced Westerns in India. Even films regarded as mediocre in their home market stormed Indian box offices.

What remains to be seen is if Western audiences repay the compliment by embracing the latest Curry Western. For its part, The New York Times was unsure what to make of it. Its reviewer concluded: "Quick Gun is above all a comedy, and an exhausting one. You may feel relief when it runs out of steam in the second half."

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