Tejas Nair
There comes a film every once in a while that tries too hard to convey a message but falls flat on its own face mostly due to a lack of substantial content and heavy doses of embellishments. Netflix's Lust Stories is one such anthology film with four 30-minute stories that aspire to break taboos associated with women's sexuality but are, in fact, purveyors of nonsense. Except for Karan Johar and Anurag Kashyap hitting one or two right chords with their stories about vaginal pleasure and emotional attachment respectively, Lust Stories gasps for freshness and logic. While Johar's young housewife (Kiara Advani) is dissatisfied with her husband's performance on bed and so looks for external stimuli in a righteous way, Kashyap's teacher (Radhika Apte) is obsessed with a youngster who she had a poontang with despite telling him herself to not take it to the heart. Zoya Akhtar comes in third with her excellently acted trash about a housemaid (Bhumi Pednekar) taken for granted by her bachelor employer after they engage in some nasty sex. There's not even a sprinkle of inference you can gather from the story other than the subtle performance by the cast which also include Neil Bhoopalam. Dibakar Banerjee certainly did not get the memo as his story looks like a nonsensical excerpt from an awful book. Manisha Koirala takes cues from Banerjee to take marital decisions for her character while enjoying the mess she has made the lives of two men and vice versa. (I mean it, don't tell me otherwise.) The music and overall cast performance is good and high-energy, thanks to Netflix, but the content seems like it was concocted just to frame it with the word 'feminism' and then sent for human consumption. I get it when Johar tries to highlight the importance of women's sexuality but it does not have to be forced, just like the little humor that Lust Stories overall boasts of. Don't waste your time unless you want to have a look at how the actors look when they act 'it'. TN.
shrivastavshubhanshu
I don't know what modern india are you talking about. Women act like who**s, acceptable. But seriously, with how much population has these things happened to out of the total population of the country? Even if you guess it is lesser than 10% the most. How is that the story of modern India? Yahan toh log bachpan se single baithe hain, I know so many such people. Anyway, it basically is again about women doing debauchery, adultery, cheating, indulging in unethical and immoral practises in the name of women orientation and empowerment. I mean "Give me a break!" I see more than 50% of fake rape cases registered daily in police stations, so many families and men ruined by registering a fake complaint and misusing the law by women in their favour. And they talk about 'empowerment', 'upliftment'! *Rubbish*
BTW
THAT BIT BY KARAN JOHAR WAS A COPY FROM A KATHERINE HEIGL AND GERARD BUTLER MOVIE - THE UGLY TRUTH!Anyway, it was so boring I couldn't bear to watch after half an hour! And I am the guy who hates those typical bollywood nonsense masala movies! so thats saying something. nothing more to add.
aparajitam-18981
Every story in Lust Stories is unique in its own way. Lust, like love, has so many interpretations. We express our sexual feelings, be it the interest or disinterest, in different ways.
Like Kalindi/Radhika Apte in Anurag Kashyap's story. Kalindi wants to be a sexual free bird. Her husband has given her permission. She finds two men/boys who are ready and willing. Yet, she seems to be caught up in a whirlwind of her own. If you hear her monologues carefully, you realize how she isn't able to give permission to herself to be free from possessiveness, codependent behavior and the usual trappings of a love affair. Her obsessive behavior towards Tejas is exactly what she warns him against. Her almost-psychotic actions would have been expected from a younger, more naive girl in her first love affair, but appears jarring in an older, more worldly woman who seems to want to have a casual affair. You feel irritated, yet sorry for her mental state of affairs.
Like Sudha/ Bhumi Pednekar in Zoya Akhtar's story. Sudha is pretty much in a domesticated wife-like relationship. She cooks, cleans, gives the towel, touches the parent's feet, and of course, performs the wifely duties in the bedroom. Yet she is not the wife. She's the maid. Everyone 'loves' her but nobody even registers her presence. Then comes the good girl. The educated, modern, career girl who is the 'right' fit for the man and his family. The would-be bahu is the good girl, which is sort of reinforced by Sudha being called 'gandi ladki' in an earlier scene. You are left guessing what exactly her state of mind is, because she doesn't utter a word. But I would imagine confusion and betrayal would be some of them. On her way home, she meets her friend, a fellow maid, who shows her a beautiful dress. The pure silk kurta with full embroidery. It looks perfect till you see the tear in it. It's a hand-me-down, an uttaran in colloquial terms. That's when you see Sudha smile. Probably because deep inside her, she knows. What the good girl is getting is after all, her hand-me-down.
Like Reena/ Manisha Koirala in Dibakar Banerjee's story. She has already achieved sexual freedom. She escapes her emotionally abusive marriage to spend time with her lover, who is also her husband's best friend. She is, by far, the most sorted character in the movie and the only one who is truly in control of her sexuality. She panics for a second at the possibility of her husband finding out but then goes on to own her truth. It's only then that she discovers how codependent the two men in her life are. The fact that the husband chooses to live with her infidelity and in fact cares more about facing his friend doesn't faze her at all. She makes sure both men know what the other did, and the truth seems to set her free. I honestly felt bad for her for a moment but then applauded her strength. Must be great to have no guilt.
And finally like Megha/ Kiara Advani in Karan Johar's story. Her's is the most amazing journey of discovering her sexuality. Imagine being in a world where nobody talks about sex. Where your mother says that you must get married to go on a date with a guy. Where your mother in law says that children are a woman's only desire and that sex is an exercise that needs to get done with ASAP. Where your husband hasn't even been able to fully understand his own needs, let alone yours. Megha and Paras have spent their entire lives in silos, where having no interaction with the opposite sex is considered to a virtue. They have never had friendly conversations with the opposite sex, and do not know how to even bring up sex, except though alligator analogies. What follows after many count-of-five sessions, correction of spellings in Lolita and a library fantasy is a sudden, rather public coming of age of a married woman. You really can't help cheering her on. I felt very happy for Megha, and even Paras, at the end. Two people who just want to have ice cream together.
I must add a few words about the direction styles of each story. Karan Johar and his OTT, pun-filled, over-explained, almost comedy skit (where he actually borrows from his own roast by Tanmay Bhat') stands out amongst the four, probably not for all the right reasons. Anurag Kashyap 2.0 goes for the mockumentary style but the final product seems largely unscripted and improv-ish. Dibakar Banerjee has the most believable characters with believable relationship problems, who behave like flawed humans and make it difficult for you to side with anyone. I personally luuuurrrved Zoya Akhtar and her nuanced characters in a story about a topic that lots of people joked about till Shiney Ahuja happened. I have been a fan of her movies with their detailing, subtleties and deep understanding of characters. This short just seals my love for her.
This review is mostly about the female characters, probably because I have the frame of reference. I might just write one about the male characters. That should be fun.
