You’d think tension, palpable enough that you could cut it with a knife, would be crucial in an anthology about lust. Unfortunately, Lust Stories 2, the second coming of Netflix’s International Emmy-nominated Lust Stories doesn’t exactly tell tales that make you come… to that point where you’re all hot, bothered, awkward, and your thirsty mouth is forming that perfect ‘O’. Of the four directors whose work features in this anthology—R. Balki, Konkona Sen Sharma, Sujoy Ghosh, and Amit Ravindernath Sharma—only Konkona’s film with Tillotama Shome and Amruta Subhash manages to evoke the reaction described above. And it makes you wonder, did no one else understand the assignment despite this being round two?
The first Lust Stories, which featured films from Anurag Kashyap, Zoya Akhtar, Dibakar Banerjee, and Karan Johar—got the point of the anthology bang on. If sex is a taboo topic in India, lust for sexual pleasure is TABOO in all caps. We all do it, we all have our weird kinks, fantasies, and secrets, but talking about it, let alone showing it on screen with mainstream actors playing these characters is what made Lust Stories such a hot commodity. We’re still talking about the Kiara Advani vibrator scene from KJo’s segment, aren’t we, five years later!
But Lust Stories 2 has a problem in that it aspires to be the edgy successor to the first one. It wants to play with the genres, add in twists and go real dark. And in those efforts, it lost the basic ethos of what this anthology is supposed to be.
Lust Stories 2 begins with the film by R Balki, featuring Neena Gupta, Mrunal Thakur, and Angad Bedi. The cool Dadi who tells her grandchild to test drive her future spouse and check for sexual bliss before hitching their wagons to each other instantly became the main attraction when the Lust Stories 2 trailer dropped. Neena Gupta’s straight-talking grandmother gets some of the best dialogues in the entire anthology—like the Mount Fuji one—even if they sound just like that—like carefully crafted dialogues. And yes, she does advocate for female pleasure, and male frustration with sexual performance as casually as if she were discussing the dinner menu. But it still feels a tad preachy, particularly when you factor in her granddaughter’s (Mrunal Thakur) reaction to it.
The entire family is scandalised, and the granddaughter is amazed and amused to find out that her Dadi is “so sexy”, this firecracker who’ll burst without warning. And that doesn’t sit right, because why is this a personality trait that has come out so late that the entire family is shocked, even her son? Wouldn’t she be this upfront all her life? Leave the lofty logic aside, and this is perhaps the safest of all the films, with zero sex appeal. Erm, sir, this is a Lust Stories? Why are we all bark and no bite? It’s like the film exudes BDE (Big D*ck Energy) and you fall for it, but minus Neena Gupta’s dialogues, the carpets do not match the drapes!
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We can consider the first film as mildly good erotica you’d read before you pleasure yourself, after which comes the main act of this anthology. And oh my god yes! Yes, Konkona Sen Sharma’s film does make you climax, thanks to some fantastic writing, an unbridled display of lust, the incredible comedic expressions of Tillotama Shome, and a superbly convincing act by a very sexy Amruta Subhash. This is the kind of lust that scandalises you, makes you uncomfortable and hyper-aware that you are watching this film with other people in the room, and yet you cannot look away.
This is a story that tackles both voyeurism and exhibitionism and the power dynamics involved in it; is it the voyeur who abuses her power or the exhibitionist who lets her watch and is turned on by it? But it doesn’t just stop there; it explores an added layer of the social class difference between an employer and domestic help, which further complicates the power dynamic for these two women. It’s hot, there’s unabashed sex, it’s a lust story with female pleasure at the centre that makes you fan yourself, and your morals blank out as you would during an orgasm.
This is perhaps the longest of all the films and after a charged and fantastically performed confrontation scene between these two actors, the pace slows down, making you feel the time. In hindsight, knowing what follows after, I am completely okay with it. What happens after, you ask? You know the morning after sex, when you are all warm and glowy and want to go for round two but the person you’re in bed with suddenly turns distant and cold, as if they are a whole new person? Yeah, that’s precisely what happens to Lust Stories 2 in its third and fourth films. The mood changes, and you get proper whiplash.
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When Sujoy Ghosh’s film begins, you suspect right off the bat that something is off with how it looks. This is the one that has been milked the most during the film’s marketing, with Tamannaah Bhatia and Vijay Varma being the hot couple that met on the sets and is dating IRL too. My expectations were lofty, particularly for the hotness of it all. For her part, Tamannaah really turned on the sex appeal, looking breathtaking in every frame. And Vijay did what Vijay has been doing in his past few outings. Yet, it didn’t come together for me. I could predict the twisty end which wasn’t all that novel. But most importantly, I felt betrayed that it was too much of a stretch to call this a lust story.
This is where it all starts going downhill, and the anthology loses its way. The lustful, carefree hookup you were supposed to have turned into a full-blown traumatic nightmare.
The fourth film, by Amit Ravindernath Sharma, featuring Kajol and Kumud Mishra, needs to come with a trigger warning for marital rape and domestic abuse. It follows the done-to-death trope of ragged Indian royals long bereft of any authority over their kingdoms, but still holding on to the bygone pride, honour, and sexual dominion over their female subjects. It’s extremely difficult to watch, and you can call that a testament to Kumud Mishra’s convincing performance as an alcoholic predatory king living in a rundown, vermin-infested palace. But that’s about the only thing with conviction in this film which is about the dark, disturbing side of lust, sex, and power.
For starters, I wasn’t convinced that abusive marriage and the lecherous male gaze must always be this explicitly and repeatedly portrayed. Another problem was an unconvincing Kajol, who just couldn’t portray the delicate nuances of a shattered-yet-pulled-together queen biding her strength for a way out of her decaying golden prison. We’ve seen Alia Bhatt play this more effectively in Gangubai Kathiawadi, and this could’ve been played by anyone. And finally, there’s the ending, which has not one but two twists, the first one palatable but the second just downright devastating, not because you feel sad for the characters but because you sat through all of this triggering stuff for it to go darker and bleaker.
I fail to, scratch that, refuse to understand the need for a franchise like Lust Stories to go down this route. Isn’t it already established that your edge is the conversation around sex and lust? I look to this anthology to normalise a lot of taboos around sex, kinks, and fetishes; to subtly wink at the audience as if saying, “What you think is dirty or perverse, we all do it, we all think it, we all feel it too. ” Instead, Lust Stories 2 left me unsatisfied, but worse, triggered with its last two stories. Could they have been handled better? Maybe. But would I rather they handled the vast ocean of topics that need to be talked about, such as dirty talking, people not knowing where to put it, sex addiction, erotica, BDSM, sexting, and even LGBTQ+ sexual relations…
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Verdict
I was quite warmed up and ready for Lust Stories 2 to be a franchise I look forward to. But if Neena Gupta was my grandma, and advised me to check for Mount Fuji eruptions as a compatibility test before marriage, I’d say only Konkona Sen Sharma’s film got it going for me. The rest felt like a cold shower that turned the heat back down. Kaafi anti-climactic, if you ask me.
Lust Stories 2 is currently streaming on Netflix.