''Donga'' () is a 1985 Indian Telugu-language

action film Action film is a film genre in which the protagonist is thrust into a series of events that typically involve violence and physical feats. The genre tends to feature a mostly resourceful hero struggling against incredible odds, which include l ...

directed by A. Kodandarami Reddy and produced by T. Trivikrama Rao under his banner Vijayalakshmi Art Pictures. The film stars

Chiranjeevi Chiranjeevi (born Konidela Sivasankara Varaprasad; 22 August 1955) is an Indian actor, film producer and former politician, who predominantly works in Telugu cinema. Chiranjeevi starred in over 150 feature films in Telugu, as well as some fil ...

and Radha while

Rao Gopal Rao Raavu Gopala Rao (14 January 1937 – 13 August 1994) was an Indian actor and producer known for his works in Telugu cinema and Telugu theatre. In a film career spanning more than twenty five years, Rao starred in over four hundred feature film ...

Allu Ramalingaiah Allu Ramalingaiah (1 October 1922 – 31 July 2004) was an Indian character actor, comedian, and producer known for his works in Telugu cinema. In 1990, He was honoured with the Padma Shri for his contribution to Indian cinema. In 1998, he r ...

and

Gollapudi Maruti Rao Gollapudi Maruti Rao (14 April 1939 – 12 December 2019) was an Indian actor, screenwriter, dramatist, playwright, columnist and dialogue writer known for his works in Telugu cinema, Telugu theatre and Telugu Literature. Rao acted in over 250 ...

play the supporting roles with music composed by Chakravarthy. Released on 14 March 1985, the film was a commercial success.

Tamil Tamil may refer to: * Tamils, an ethnic group native to India and some other parts of Asia **Sri Lankan Tamils, Tamil people native to Sri Lanka also called ilankai tamils **Tamil Malaysians, Tamil people native to Malaysia * Tamil language, nativ ...

dubbed version is titled '' Kolai Karan''.

Plot

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 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.

Cast

as Phani * Radha as Manjulatha *

as Kodandaramayya *

as Rama Subbaiah *

Gollapudi Maruthi Rao Gollapudi Maruti Rao (14 April 1939 – 12 December 2019) was an Indian actor, screenwriter, dramatist, playwright, columnist and dialogue writer known for his works in Telugu cinema, Telugu theatre and Telugu Literature. Rao acted in over 25 ...

as Anjineelu *

Rajendra Prasad Rajendra Prasad (3 December 1884 – 28 February 1963) was an Indian politician, lawyer, Indian independence activist, journalist & scholar who served as the first president of Republic of India from 1950 to 1962. He joined the Indian Nationa ...

as Inspector Ravi *

Nutan Prasad Tadinada Varaprasad popularly known as Nutan Prasad (12 December 1945 – 30 March 2011) was an Indian actor who predominantly worked in Telugu cinema and Telugu theatre. He was a native of Kaikaluru, Andhra Pradesh, India. He started his film ...

as Ranga *Sridhar as Viswanath *Raja as Rajesh * P. L. Narayana as Chandra Shekar Rao * Chalapathi Rao *Bheemiswara Rao * Chitti Babu *

Silk Smitha Vijayalakshmi Vadlapati (2 December 1960 – 23 September 1996), better known by her stage name Silk Smitha, was an Indian actress and dancer who worked predominantly in Telugu, Tamil, Malayalam, Kannada and Hindi films. Smitha was part of ...

* Rajyalakshmi as Malathi * Poornima * Shubha *Mamatha *Athili Lakshmi *Jhansi as Duragamma

Soundtrack

Music composed by Chakravarthy. Lyrics were written by

Veturi Veturi Sundararama Murthy (29 January 1936 – 22 May 2010), known mononymously by his surname Veturi, was an Indian poet, lyricist and journalist who is popular for writing Telugu songs. His career in the Telugu cinema spanned more than four de ...

. The music released on AVM Audio Company.

Reception

Giddaluri Gopalrao reviewing for ''

Zamin Ryot ''Zamin Ryot'' ( te, జమీన్ రైతు, Jamīn Raitu) is an Indian Telugu-language weekly newspaper published from Nellore. It was started by N. Venkatrama Naidu in . It has been called the longest continuously running Telugu newspa ...

'' on 22 March 1985, has criticised the film for its poorly-written screenplay and needless action sequences while mentioning that Chiranjeevi was the only sigh of relief. C. S. V of ''

Andhra Patrika Andhra Patrika was the weekly newspaper of the nationalist movement in the Telugu speaking region founded by Kasinadhuni Nageswara Rao in 1908. It later transformed into a daily newspaper before it closed down in 1991. It helped to shape both mo ...

'' writing his review on 29 March 1985, appreciated the performances of the lead cast and Chakravathy's music.

Legacy

* The film's musical number ''Golimar'' () has choreography and elements heavily inspired from the

music video A music video is a video of variable duration, that integrates a music song or a music album with imagery that is produced for promotional or musical artistic purposes. Modern music videos are primarily made and used as a music marketing device ...

for

Michael Jackson Michael Joseph Jackson (August 29, 1958 – June 25, 2009) was an American singer, songwriter, dancer, and philanthropist. Dubbed the "King of Pop", he is regarded as one of the most significant cultural figures of the 20th century. Over a ...

's song " Thriller." The sequence which is often referred as "Indian Thriller", became a

viral video A viral video is a video that becomes popular through a viral process of Internet sharing, typically through video sharing websites such as YouTube as well as social media and email.Lu Jiang, Yajie Miao, Yi Yang, ZhenZhong Lan, Alexander Haupt ...

; 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 Wasabi ( Japanese: , , or , ; ''Eutrema japonicum'' or ''Wasabia japonica'') or Japanese horseradish is a plant of the family Brassicaceae, which also includes horseradish and mustard in other genera. The plant is native to Japan and the Russi ...

on my dude", and "You'll be pumping

Ovaltine Ovaltine (also known by its original name Ovomaltine) is a brand of milk flavoring product made with malt extract (except in the blue packaging in the United States), sugar (except in Switzerland), and whey. Some flavors also have cocoa. Ovalt ...

." He has also produced similar spoofs with other songs, including " Benny Lava", a similar edit of a number from the

film ''

Pennin Manathai Thottu ''Pennin Manathai Thottu'' () is a 2000 Indian Tamil language, Tamil-language romantic drama film written and directed by Ezhil. The film stars Prabhu Deva and Jaya Seal, with Sarathkumar in a guest appearance. Produced by Kaja Mydeen, the film w ...

''. * American

dubstep Dubstep is a genre of electronic dance music that originated in South London in the early 2000s. The style emerged as a UK garage offshoot that blended 2-step rhythms and sparse dub production, as well as incorporating elements of broken be ...

producer

Skrillex Sonny John Moore (born January 15, 1988), known professionally as Skrillex, is an American DJ and music producer. Growing up in Northeast Los Angeles and Northern California, he joined the post-hardcore band From First to Last as the lead si ...

sampled "Golimar" in a mashup with his song "

Scary Monsters and Nice Sprites ''Scary Monsters and Nice Sprites'' is the second extended play (EP) by American electronic music producer Skrillex. It was released exclusively through Beatport on October 22, 2010 through mau5trap and Big Beat Records, while being released on ...

" entitled "Scary Bolly Dub"—which includes clips of the scene as visuals during live performances. * The film's titled has been adopted to the Telugu dubbed version of Tamil film ''Thambi'' (2019) starring

Karthi Karthik Sivakumar (born 25 May 1977), better known by his stage name Karthi, is an Indian actor who works predominantly in Tamil cinema. He has won three Filmfare Awards South, an Edison Award, a SIIMA Award and a Tamil Nadu State Film Aw ...

References

External links

* {{Thriller (album) 1980s Telugu-language films 1985 action films 1985 films Cultural depictions of Michael Jackson Films directed by A. Kodandarami Reddy Films scored by K. Chakravarthy Indian action films