The small screen’s Miilee

The title may remind you of Hrishikesh Mukherjee's 1975 film with Jaya Bhaduri, who plays the effervescent Mili, who helps mellows a drunk, violent Amitabh Bachchan.

But this small screen's Miilee (all numerologically correct!) has an entire dysfunctional family to set right.

The next biggie soap from Star Plus will be the daily Miilee.

According to the buzz, the show is slated to go on air early next month and is likely to replace the current lot of 9 pm shows.

Playing the title role is Mona Wasu (see box) who describes Miilee's character "As this bindaas girl who loves to have a good time.

She is happy-go-lucky, fun-loving with a carefree attitude. The serial has a very Sound Of Music kind of feel to it," she adds.

The plot features Miilee, an orphan who lives in a convent in Shimla. Living among the nuns, she leads a simple life, loved and adored by everyone around her.

However, at 18, she has to leave the convent to eke out a living on her own. She moves in as the governess of an old woman (played by Sushma Seth), in a huge family full of idiosyncrasies. From then on Miilee has an added task — to put the rest of the family into perspective.

Miilee is produced by Vinta Nanda and written and directed by Raman Kumar. Best known as the path-breaking Tara team, the duo is back on the small screen after a long hiatus.

"Post Tara, I went on to do several shows like Umeed, Shatranj, Agnichakra,"' says Nanda. "Off late, I was not into television as I was busy with my film White Noise. Now, I plan to do both as we have consolidated our production team which can simultaneously dabble in both television and films."

The idea of doing Miilee was sounded off almost a year ago to Nanda. "It was Shailja Kejriwal (Star's creative head) who egged me to take on this project," adds Nanda.

Interestingly, it was also Kejriwal who spotted the actress in Wasu when she anchored Operation Gold on Star Gold.

The cast of Miilee includes Ajay Gehi, Kiran Kumar, Asif Shaikh and Mahru Shaikh. Gehi, who makes his TV debut, has featured in Vishal Bhardwaj's film Maqbool, besides the Kingfisher ads.

Incidentally, Nanda also has plans for another soap and a film.

"In fact, I have already worked on the film's script. It is called Soulmate At Any Rate and is a lighthearted, full-of-life subject. I will begin casting in the next couple of weeks," adds Nanda.

shaheen@mid-day.com