Lust Stories

I watched this series with a lot of hope. But it falls flat on it's face. Either the filmmakers slept walked through the making or tried too hard. Apart from Karan Johar's movie, the rest delivers almost nothing. Anurag Kashyap's movie tries to ask a few important questions about love and existence. Yet it fails to make an impact.

Joya Akhtar and Banerjee fails to impress. It's Karan Johar who makes it watchable and puts across question of female desire and pleasure. Something not seen in popular media.

You can watch it once. But not something you will ever come back to.

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.

First - Anurag Kashyap

The first episode highly relies on Radhika Apte's phenomenal acting chops. She is natural and convincing and her monologues are absolutely spot on. The entire chapter becomes quite comedic and funny thanks to her strong presence and understanding of the script's slightly ironic tone. Does the episode live up to her performance? Well, it is dictated by it, and so the episode is just as enjoyable as her performance, so it's great. I highly doubt it would have been equally as good had someone else been in charge of acting out this difficult role, but Anurag Kashyap should definitely be given credit for making it what it is.

Second - Zoya Akhtar

Not a big fan of Zoya Akhtar but growing to appreciate her talent especially after this fantastic and strong episode, which provides an important commentary on India's social hierarchy and addresses themes of class, arranged marriages, and the traces of some conservative values of Indian culture in modern-day India. The one who carries this entire thing on her able shoulders is the absolutely wonderful Bhumi Pednekar, who is unafraid to look earthy, real, and not at her prettiest. More than anything, her short performance, especially in that brilliant scene as she is filmed walking with the platter in her hands, looking all on the verge of a breakdown, is very strong and affecting. Great, great work.

Third - Dibakar Banerjee

I've been quite fond of Banerjee's filmmaking. I remember having really loved Oye Lucky! Lucky Oye! (2008) and the likes, but this chapter is sadly, just pointless. I really didn't get the purpose or message of the story and it dragged quite a bit. The only saving grace here, except for the nice exteriors, is obviously the excellent Manisha Koirala, who has rarely been less than good even in the most outrageous mainstream films of her career. She makes this episode quite watchable, but she deserved more.

Fourth - Karan Johar

Well, it's a nice one, indeed, but not that great and quite predictable. Karan Johar has improved a lot as a filmmaker but he's still clinging to a lot of clichés and often catches up on different social trends too late. The feminist message that women have desires too is a little too corny, a little too obvious, and quite preachy altogether. But it's a very enjoyable chapter nonetheless, mainly due to the wonderful and brave Kiara Advani, who gives a nuanced and restrained performance, especially in that famous scene. Good support from Vicky Kaushal does good to the entire episode.

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.

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.