The IOU AB never forgot

Bharati Dubey in Malaysia

One expected history to repeat itself at the world music release of Sanjay Gupta's Kaante . Last year, he had launched Kaante with much fanfare at the International India Film Academy (IIFA) Awards function at Sun City.

However, not all of the six lead stars of Kaante could make it to the specially organised music screening at the Ballroom of Genting Highlands Resort, Malaysia.

Amitabh Bachchan, Sanjay Dutt, Kumar Gaurav and director Sanjay Gupta represented the Kaante team. The other stars --- Sunil Shetty, Mahesh Manjrekar and Lucky Ali --- were conspicuous by their absence.

Gupta called the stars of the film on the dais.

Love Story hero Kumar Gaurav, who almost disappeared to oblivion after the failure of his last flick Phool, makes a comeback of sorts with Kaante.

In this Bollywood adaptation of Quentin Tarantino's Reservoir Dogs, Gaurav plays one of five prisoners.

"My personal favourite [song] is Mahi ve, which boasts of world's best dancers shaking a leg along with our very own sizzling Malaika Arora," raves Gaurav.

Speaking about the music of the film, Sanjay Gupta said, "In this day of love stories and chocolate boys, this album is from an action thriller film that promises to be a hit!"

Close buddy Sanjay Dutt who made Sanjay Gupta's dream of making this film come true. As Gupta puts it, "He turned this film into a 30 crore plus extravaganza, it is because of his effort that the film came into being."

Sanjay Dutt and Gupta earlier appeared on the celebrity television serial Jeena Isi Ka Naam Hai, where Dutt held Gupta responsible for him dancing in Hindi films.

Back to the music launch, Amitabh Bachchan was introduced on stage, with Gupta quipping, "I can tell my children and grandchildren one day that I got a chance to work with Amitabh Bachchan. It was a pleasure working with him."

Bachchan felt working in this film was a favour to the late actress Nargis Dutt: "Working on this film was an emotional decision. [looking at Sanjay Dutt as he speaks], I am returning the favour to Nargis Dutt who took my first screen test in a very small way."

Sanjay Dutt earlier displayed his vocal skills in Sanjay Chhel's Khubsoorat, where he crooned the catchy Aye Shivani. He sings for the second time in Kaante. The song, Rama re has him at the mike along with [singer] Shaan.

Singer-turned-actor Lucky Ali has a vital role in Kaante --- he not only acts but has also composed the music for the film. Rumours had it that he was missing from the function because of a fallout with Gupta.

Anand Raaj Anand, the other composer of the film, was also present at the do. Jaya Bachchan, distributor Shyam Shroff, Rohit Roy, Bikram Saluja and Isha Koppikar also attended the do.