Lust Stories
Directors - Anurag Kashyap, Zoya Akhtar, Dibakar Banerjee, Karan Johar
Cast - Radhika Apte, Bhumi Pednekar, Manisha Koirala, Kiara Advani, Neha Dhupia, Vicky Kaushal, Jaideep Ahlawat, Sanjay Kapoor
Rating - 3.5/5

Lust Stories, the new original film from Netflix, out on June 15 - one of the first Indian originals on the streaming service is a unique tapestry of Indian cinema. Through four short films, directed by four of the country’s most prominent Hindi filmmakers, it presents the sort of unusual stories that feel fresh, yet familiar. It’s almost like a sampling platter that you might find at a fancy restaurant, an unexpected marriage of contrasting styles and sensibilities, tones and textures that highlights the best (and worse) of what we have to offer.

The opener, directed by Anurag Kashyap, is almost like a screwball comedy, but laced with an indescribable darkness that is so unique to his films. It stars Radhika Apte as Kalindi, a fiery college professor who initiates a rather iffy sexual relationship with one of her students.She regrets it immediately, and having heard stories of overemotional stalkers, warns him that they will not be meeting up again. This plays almost like an adolescent’s fantasy, but Kashyap has significantly increased the student’s age perhaps keeping in mind the immaturity and inexperience of the Indian male.

The next two films by Zoya Akhtar and Dibakar Banerjee really attempt to peel the layers off lust.
Zoya Akhtar's film can be a study in how to make a whole film around the psyche of one character, without it coming off as boring. In her film, an upper middle class man (Neil Bhoopalam) living in Mumbai has an affair with his domestic help Sudha (Bhumi Pednekar). This is perhaps Bhumi's best performance to date, and the credit for this goes to Zoya, who aptly understands the point of view of someone from a lower socio-economic position. There are a lot of still shots in the film, and the focus is on what's being said, or what's happening in the background.Zoya shows us a brutal reality with silence, and understated observations.

Dibakar Banerjee plays with our ideas of fidelity and monogamy in the face of lust. However, there are no dramatic episodes condemning extra-marital affairs. Instead, his film attempts to understand what marriage and loyalty mean to people who have seen the world. Reena (Manisha Koirala) is quite fed up of mothering her emotionally-needy husband (Sanjay Kapoor) and has been having an affair with her husband's best friend Sudhir (Jaideep Ahlawat). Dibakar champions his characters' age and outlook, giving us a perspective that can possibly come only with being seasoned. This is a (welcome) character-heavy short and has the best casting of the four. It's always a treat to watch Manisha Koirala on screen.

Lust Stories ends with Karan Johar’s short, which sticks out like he did in Bombay Velvet. It’s the only film that seems to be drawing attention to itself, which is especially noticeable after the rather low-key vibe of the previous three segments. It features the least complex protagonist of the quartet Kiara Advani’s small-town wife discovers the wonders of a vibrator in a scene.

Unknowingly or knowingly, the four stories in Lust Stories revolve around women, and this is the true feminist statement in the film. Not because the chosen protagonist of each short is a woman, but because this is done so without much showsha. They don't just use women as protagonists to make a point, but they use it as a way to subvert their narratives, to tell stories from a uniquely different perspective.

Watch the trailer of the movie here :

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