Lust Stories 3 continues its tradition of offering attractively-wrapped pieces of provocation in a box. Only this time, it doesn’t dwell too deep into the emotions of sex and enjoys it for what it is, discovers Sukanya Verma.
IMAGE: Aditi Rao Hydari and Siddharth in Lust Stories 3.
Key Points
- Lust Stories 3 is an anthology featuring segments by Vikramaditya Motwane, Kiran Rao, Shakun Batra, Vishal Bhardwaj.
- Vikramaditya Motwane’s Consenting Adults segment, starring Konkona Sen Sharma and Radhika Apte, explores husband-swapping with a focus on female solidarity.
- Shakun Batra’s segment delves into a divorcing couple’s bizarre intimacy, where sex becomes their only form of communication, highlighting societal conditioning.
- Vishal Bhardwaj’s ‘impish ode to female lust’ set in late 1980s Hyderabad features Aditi Rao Hydari as a woman inspired to write erotica amidst societal anxieties.
Lust Stories 3 was inevitable.
When the first Lust Stories came out, it was a novel attempt to normalise sex and its byproducts as fundamental as any other human emotion in mainstream. Though not quite as refreshing as its predecessor, Lust Stories 2 made an attempt to understand the politics of passion.
Packaged in an anthology format, its four filmmakers helming four segments pattern lend the projects a watchability that even inconsistency couldn’t diminish… until its overkill during pandemic. Much water has flowed under the bridge since.
A Fresh Roster of Directors
The Netflix franchise returns with a reignited libido and exciting new voices sharing their view of treating sex with fun, fizz and frivolity.
It’s a fine roster of Vikramaditya Motwane, Kiran Rao, Shakun Batra and Vishal Bhardwaj showing off their creativity in short form filmmaking over stories that occasionally overlap but chart their own course and chronology.
First up, there’s Motwane’s racy and rollicking Consenting Adults escapade. Penned by Avinash Sampath, it treats audacious ideas so breezily, playing along comes as easily as Konkona Sen Sharma convincing Radhika Apte to toss their middle-class morality aside and engage in some mid-life thrills by swapping husbands over a weekend getaway.
As the oblivious objects of their sneaky exchange programme, Vijay Varma and Abhishek Banerjee’s unexpected response — ranging from comical to pitiful — is never the takeaway as much as female solidarity surviving embarrassment with its head held high.
Konkona and Radhika’s snug portrayal of a lived-in friendship and indestructible sisterhood holding out through disappointment or doubt, boosted by Sneha Khanwilkar’s wild score, reiterates their gifts and ensures Motwane’s tantalising trip is a cheeky glimpse into female chutzpah.
Varying Takes on Seduction and Intimacy
There’s an ad film-like quality to Kiran Rao’s pizza delivery boy-meets-manicure artist hitting it off instantly, translating into sexual energy. Only there’s no chocolate or condom to be sold as the North Indian lad and South Indian lass embark on a no-strings attached affair.
A midpoint twist employing Karan Arjun as a punchline, a final one where taking the mickey out of someone is not just metaphorical, Rao’s witless ploys struggles in the absence of quirk. Marred by monotonous ideas of deceit and a lacklustre chemistry between its leads Gurfateh Pirzada and Sana Thampi, Rao’s neither sly nor steamy take on swindling seduction is the weakest of all four segments.
The family fight around a plumber in Kapoor & Sons is an everlasting reminder of Shakun Batra’s proficiency at dysfunctional scenarios. You feel its heat when a marriage dissolves and only malice lingers on every time Radhikka Madan and Ali Fazal engage in a war of words.
As per Colombian author Gabriel García Márquez, sex is the consolation you have when you can’t have love. A ready-to-divorce couple’s cooling-off period finds them at an interesting crossroads where sex is the only language they can communicate in.
Unwilling to agree on a single topic, unable to keep their hands off each other, their bizarre intimacy makes little sense to anyone outside their therapist’s office even as lawyers scratch their heads and parents fall back on WhatsApp book of quotes.
Batra humanises their disappointment as well as amplifies their newfound love-making prowess. Noting how young men and women are conditioned by compromised domestic arrangements at home while the Instagram generation compels them to focus on the pretty bits and edit out the uncomfortable ones, Radhikka and Ali’s journey from unfiltered rage to unfiltered thoughts unburdens them in ways as a couple finds closure.
Playful Ode to Female Desire
Finally, there is Vishal Bhardwaj’s impish ode to female lust against the backdrop of late 1980s Hyderabadi Muslim community. Imagine a horny Hrishikesh Mukerjee slice-of-life, correction, slice-of-sex with Aditi Rao Hydari, Siddharth and Gajraj Rao in Deepti Naval, Farooque Shaikh and Utpal Dutt’s shoes, retaining all its feel-good ardour but none of the reserve.
Bhardwaj achieves the unimaginable in one of his most playful works in a long time. Letting his hair down over spoofy exaggerations and surprising inspirations, which feel more Bhansali than the Bard, he chronicles the anxieties surrounding a woman’s lust within a demure society.
When not delivering stool samples for her pathology lab-running father-in-law and husband or working on her doctorate, Aditi Rao Hydari shows up as a proxy literature lecturer at an all-girls college.
Teaching a class that’s more curious about her sex life than the syllabus, she juggles between Manto Ke Afsane and Macy & Ben (a takeoff on Mills & Boon) until the overdramatic overtures of her sexually-charged students and dull, sex-rationing husband’s (Siddharth) indifference inspire her to write her own erotica.
Against flights of fantasy fetishising her significant other as a carnal cherub clad in a hanky-sized towel and a private hobby taking a bestseller turn, shame and self-pleasure coincide.
Humorous and hunky in equal measure, Siddharth makes a meal out of his eye candy avatar whereas Gajraj Rao’s paan gurgling, unintelligibly speaking, wiser-than-he-lets-on supportive sasur pitches in an endearing cameo. But it is Aditi’s show from start to finish.
If Kiara Advani’s orgasmic imagery was the face of the original Lust Stories, Aditi’s salacious adventurer spewing in adorable Hyderabadi lingo is the poster girl of the third instalment. The actor’s luminous face brims in nubile charm and innocent mischief, which makes her hot and cute in heaps. That she could be funny too, is a revelation.
Bhardwaj’s loony touches aided by a cast completely on board with its naughty ‘n’ nice mood never let any of it feel cringeworthy or cheesy.
Lust Stories 3 continues its tradition of offering attractively-wrapped pieces of provocation in a box. Only this time, it doesn’t dwell too deep into the emotions of sex and enjoys it for what it is. So will you.
Lust Stories 3 streams on Netflix.
Lust Stories 3 Review Rediff Rating:
