Bhale Donga (1989)

Bhale Donga ("the good thief") is a 1989 Telugu action film directed by A. Kodandarami Reddy, one of the most prolific commercial directors of the decade. Nandamuri Balakrishna stars as a clever, likeable thief whose crimes hide a sense of justice, and Vijayashanti, his frequent screen partner at the time, plays the female lead. The film follows the popular Robin Hood formula of the period, combining heists, romance, comedy, songs and a final showdown with the real villains. Balakrishna and Vijayashanti made a string of successful films together in the late 1980s, and this is a good example of their crowd-pleasing pairing at its peak.