
            Goldie's main objection to the English version of 'Guide' was the bedroom scene involving Rosy and Raju in the opening five minutes of the film.But his movie 'Double Cross' opens with a steaming hot bed-room scene involving the hero and his girlfriend Sonia( Ranjeeta Thakur) who is in her last session of lovemaking with the hero before she marries Maganbhai ( Madan Puri). If the reader is not able to place Ranjeeta Thakur(Rajeeta) , she was Vidya Sinha's Mumbai friend in 'Rajnigandha'.The penniless hero Ajay Arya ( Goldie) is madly in love with the heroine who opts to break up with the hero to marry a much older but supposedly rich man played by Madan Puri. I say 'supposedly' because he has no money of his own, but he is shining in the reflected glory of a very rich heiress (played by Rekha) who is his ward, and whose custody was given to him by her dying father. After being rejected and snubbed by Ranjeeta Thakur, the hero hits the bottle, becomes unconscious in a bar, gets picked up by a dancer Lily ( Asha Sachdev) who takes him home. She introduces him to a Gangster( a role surprisingly played by David) who trains our hero to be a tough man who then assumes the identity of Jimmy to indulge in the acts of crime like stealing jewelry, and impersonating as income tax inspector to conduct fake raids. The hero is also seen as pursuing the rich heiress, Rekha, who is living with her guardian Madan Puri and his wife Ranjeeta Thakur who want her to marry Pritam, Madan Puri's son from an earlier marriage ( played by Kuljeet Walia - please recall the character actor who played Peter the Mawali in 'Deewar' - can you imagine him as playing Rekha's potential suitor?). After some scenes of misunderstandings between Rekha and the hero, it is revealed that Rekha's boyfriend and Ranjeeta Thakur's ex are two different persons- actually, twin brothers- Ajay and Vijay ( both played by Goldie). After the misunderstanding is cleared Rekha marries Vijay and asks Madan Puri and Ranjeeta to leave her house - who then shift to a chawl where Ranjeeta tells Madan Puri 'you double crossed me, you pretended to be rich, but you are not'. The other avatar of the hero, Ajay, visits the chawl as a churi seller , and offers to sell a nose-pin to Ranjeeta for two hundred rupees. When Ranjeeta is not able to buy it, he says- one day you left me because I didn't have two hundred rupees for your make up kit , today you are so poor that you cannot buy a nose-pin costing just two hundred rupees. Ranjeeta is in tears but it is too late to repair the damage, and Ajay goes back to Lily( Asha Sachdev) who is carrying his child. The climax is rather lame (so unusual for a Goldie movie). Dev Kumar, the gargantuan character actor of seventies, kidnaps Lily and asks Ajay to steal Kohinoor diamond because, in an exhibition in India, the British Government, is displaying it as a special case. Ajay is able to reach the precious stone by outsmarting the security personnel, but has a last minute change of heart, and decides against stealing it. Lobo(Dev Kumar) is not happy with this double cross and it leads to tragic consequences.
The movie was produced by Yash Kohli under the banner of Pashupati Films.It is fast-paced and the narration is engaging mainly because of the tight script and screenplay by Vijay Anand and Suraj Sanim, but the direction of Gogi Anand can at best be rated as average. The combination of Majrooh Sultanpuri and RD Burman gave lovely background music and some catchy tunes like ' Jeevan Bhar Ke Liye Tu Mere Sath Hai' which became popular in early seventies. It was a treat to watch Rekha, Ranjeeta Thakur, and Asha Sachdev who were in their prime at that time, and Goldie was not bad except for his selection of wigs which didn't suit him. His line ' ek taash me chhah ikke nahi hote hain'( there cannot be six aces in a pack of cards), when he is playing cards with Man Mohan in a club, had become rather popular in my school days. The director failed to exploit Ranjeeta Thakur's charm and histrionic abilities ; maybe Rekha was a higher priority.
    

Rekha

Vijay Anand

Dev Kumar

Where to watch Double Cross (1972) movie online

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Where to watch Double Cross (1972) movie online

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Double Cross is currently streaming on the following OTT platforms in USA

Your region:
USA