Lust Stories

It is an anthology of 4 short films. But only the first and last one directed by Anurag Kashyap and Karan Johar fits in the bill. The remaining two are boring and drab. The theme of all 4 short films revolves around lust but doesn't leave an impact after watching. It could have been better and entertaining. A decent one-time watchable in Netflix.

Lust Stories is a combination of the vision of the four brilliant film makers we have in India right now. It's not a flawless film, just like we humans are not flawless. My personal favourite among the four films was the one made by Zoya Akhtar, a beautiful coming of age story which shows the prevalent class discrimination in our society. When a maid shows Bhumi Pednekar's Character (also a maid) a Salwar which was given to her as a gift by her employer only to find that it has a hole in it. The maid still refers to it as 'perfect' and proposes to wear it at her sister's wedding. The film by Anurag Kashyap seems to be a little bit too long though the character Kalindi played beautifully by Radhika Apte is one of the most complex women we might have ever seen in Hindi Cinema. The film by Dibakar Bannerjee featuring Manisha Koirala in the lead shows the story of a night and how three people realises life has more meaning to it. Finally the surprise was the film by Karan Johar's film on how a woman has to seek pleasure in a marriage when her husband thinks him having a good time is equivalent to her having a good time as well. This film features a particularly very hilarious scene which will make it difficult for you to watch K3G with your family ever again. All in all it's refreshing to see that all the 4 films are told from a woman's perspective, about time right ?

Heard a lot about it early this summer and today I finally decided to watch it. So here is my review. It has four individual stories of women are involved or want to be involved in a relationship and we are shown how and what they feel as their stories unfold.

From a technical standpoint, all the four stories have great amount of work involved. The character development is very good, the art and sound are just right. There are small and healthy doses of humor added which is enjoyable. The choice of actors for the roles is appropriate and each of them have played the roles perfectly.

From a deeper perspective, although it is intended to be for matured and highly educated audience who are possibly upper middle class and from high society, this film is hollow in that none of the stories narrated have a moral/lesson. They are worth watching once but not that worthy to come back for more. I was sitting pondering how each story was connected, was there a hidden secret, a deep rooted meaning or an easter egg for me to think about. Sadly (it may be only me), I couldn't find any. When one story ends, I felt I learned nothing from it except the third one with some really good storyline. Except for being good looking visual art pieces nothing is really conveyed that the audience can go back to.

Maybe it was intended for that. A good coffee movie about relationships for women and matured audiences can watch once and go about their lives again. Maybe they were designed such that we could find a character which we could identify with and see our feelings through them. Or just like reading a book of short relationship stories. I don't know.

First of all, i am not a big fan of commercial bollywood films., although some are worth watching( Rajkumar hiranis and aamir khan movies). Coming to this movie , my expectations were high after watching the trailer , which gave me vibes similar to a hollywood film 'The little death. But everything went downhill when i was half way through this boring piece of cinema. The Producers have obviously cheated netflix by saying that they are adding a new concept and wonder what? Lust!!. What a new concept right? Just the right formula to get both critics appraisal and grab money from the poor audience, mostly feminists. The movie started with radhika aptes story, who is a teacher obsessed with one of her students. There are mental thoughts happening with her which are shown as an interview section. The end was pretty average for general audience and mind blowing for feminists. The second movie was literally us staring at a wall for over 30 minutes. The movie was pointless and didnt knew where it was going. The third movie can be described as another wall which the audience needs to stare for a long time except one difference.. the wall is painted with a new colour. The best part was the last film by karan johar. This film had some life in it and provides occassional laughs. The end scene could have been funny if it was not copied from the Gerard butler movie 'The ugly truth'. The scene was hilarious except the fact that it doesnt have the charm of the original movie.

Overall this movie is just a typical movie which feminists can hold debates and appreciate. But for a regular movie buff this is just a money grabbing fare and can give it a skip. Watch The little death instead.

All the stories are based on a certain issues, which if one is aware of or has experienced would make it an enjoyable movie. Apart from Karan Johar one, others were difficult to comprehend as in what is happening, why are they behaving in that manner. I guess the runtime for each story was very small to establish anything in detail. In order of liking,

1. Zoya Akhtar: It seems she has taken upon herself to show poor people stories after being accused of having made movies about the rich. She does a fantastic job and the potrayal, dialogues felt authentic. Bhumi Pednekar outshines everyone across all stories. She just has 2 dialogues and the entire story hinges on her. Exceptional performance in a completely deglamourised role. Speaking of the direction, I thoroughly enjoyed the match cuts and how the story was established.

2. Karan Johar, this one is the comedy and easy to understand, watch this for sure. I felt one could have made an entire movie on this, but this one is made for the one comedic climax it felt nevertheless the climax was funny.

3. Dibakar Banerjee, I didn't get this one, a conflicted middle-aged woman it seemed, but I was left with more questions, which is may be a good thing, I don't know.

4. Anurag Kashyap, a conflicted teacher figuring out about love. I kind of understood the message being wanting everything, but without any logic about if it is morally right or wrong. It is entirely about dilemma may be best suited for people who have gone through this patch. I got bored few minutes into this and was waiting for it get over.