There’s this new show at 8 pm on &TV which has a distinctive look and treatment. Two distinguished singers, also siblings – Kalyani Gaikwad and Ketki Gaikwad -- are to appear ‘live’ on television.   Neither must know that the other is present in the studio. The studio’s well laid plans to keep the feuding sisters away from each other go kaput. In the meanwhile, a soft spoken aged lady, their mother Devika is being interviewed and she flashes back to a homestead in rural Maharashtra.

A music lesson is in progress, as two young girls showcase their voices to advantage; they are joined by a young man in a dhoti, black coat and cap. These are the first glimpses of   Meri Awaz Hi Pehchan Hai. The content is purported to be   the life and times of Lata Mangeshkar and Asha Bhosle.  

Amidst the plethora of saas-bahu melodramas which still haunt prime time, Naagin stalkers and some off-beat content, comes this music driven story of the Gaikwad family. The father Rajaram is a singer and a popular theatre actor playing female roles; his two daughters Kalyani and Ketki are supremely talented singers. His theatrical abilities have already been shown in an interlude when dressed up in a navwari sari, he sings and dances before he is attacked by goons. In that brief sequence, the drama and vigour is in full flight. Kudos to Bhanu Uday for his performance.   

What is truly striking about Meri Awaz Hi Pehchan Hai, beside the content, is the treatment and the look.  Devika Gaikwad played by Pallavi Joshi has been ‘aged’ authentically with the help of prosthetics. Usually in TV serials, whitening the hair and maybe a change in gait is sufficient to indicate the character’s aging. Here a 40-something actress has gone with a full makeover to age on screen. It’s a prudential move on the part of the producer to allow for this expense in the budget.

The production design, lighting the scenes especially and the locations are in keeping with the Gaikwad’s lifestyle. The camera work has a filmmaking style to it, not generally seen in TV serials, unless the channels allow huge budgets to the producers. Some of the shots are matchless when compared to other serials.  The DOP has used the natural texture of the location melding the landscape or the location into the scene. The colours in Kalyani and Ketki’s dresses are muted blues and pinks. Realism strikes in every way. This is a blessing, when the fast paced shot taking has stereotype flat lighting and camera placement; whereas in Meri Awaz Hi Pehchan Hai the camera pace is in sequence with the scene. In the first episode, the camerawork and editing was at a frenetic pace in the TV studio. The tight narrative on show so far is indicative that this finite series will finish in 130 episodes.

Using three different actresses to play the two lead characters at different ages is perhaps a first on Indian television. But what is really a coup for the producer Nivedita Basu is casting actresses like Zarina Wahab, Deepti Naval, Pallavi Joshi and Amrita Rao. Also, having the two leads played by three different actresses, is a first. With actresses of caliber, performances will be top class.

Nivedita Basu and her House of Originals have a winner on their hands. Her experience of holding eyeballs when she helmed Balaji’s front runner saas-bahu soaps will come handy in keeping the audience interest transfixed at 8 pm.