Phani (Chiranjeevi) commits thefts just to help the poor. He loves Kodandaramayya's daughter Manju Latha (Radha), but he seeks revenge against Kodandaramayya (Rao Gopala Rao) for killing his father. He also wants his sister Malathi (Rajyalakshmi) to marry Rajesh (Raja), son of Anjaneyulu, but he needs ₹50,000 for her dowry. At the same time, Vishwanatham (Sridhar), an income tax officer, wants his sister Rekha to marry Rajesh. With the help of the police, Phani succeeds in liquidating Kodandaramayya's gang and has his revenge. He also acquires enough money to arrange his sister's marriage with Rajesh.
C. S. V of Andhra Patrika writing his review on 29 March 1985, appreciated the performances of the lead cast and Chakravathy's music.[2]
Legacy
The film's musical number Golimar (transl. Shoot the bullet) has choreography and elements heavily inspired from the music video for Michael Jackson's song "Thriller".[4] The sequence which is often referred as "Indian Thriller", became a viral video;[5] a further parody of the scene by Mike Sutton (Buffalax) titled "Indian Thriller with English lyrics" added subtitles to the video phonetically approximating the original lyrics as English sentences; resulting in "Golimar" being misinterpreted as "Girly man", and producing such lines as "Nippley man I met, he ate my motorboat!", "I'll eat wasabi on my dude", and "You'll be pumping Ovaltine."[5] He has also produced similar spoofs with other songs, including "Benny Lava", a similar edit of a number from the Tamil film Pennin Manathai Thottu.[5]
^ abV., C. S. (29 March 1985). "చిత్ర సమీక్ష: దొంగ" [Film review: Donga] (PDF). Andhra Patrika (in Telugu). p. 8. Archived(PDF) from the original on 27 September 2022. Retrieved 27 September 2022.
