It’s almost nostalgic to watch Lust Stories 3, the latest quartet of shorts from a foursome of established Hindi film directors.
For one, it reclaims the diversity of desire in a culture notorious for treating sex as an exotic and banned drug.
Lust is framed as a middle-class construct (Vikramaditya Motwane), a weapon (Kiran Rao), a medicine (Shakun Batra), and a language (Vishal Bhardwaj).
Motwane’s segment, which plays first, bridges the influence of pop culture with middle-class desire and self-worth.
Padma’s husband, Hemant (Vijay Varma), senses his straight-laced wife’s frustration, unlike Shonali’s husband Debu (Abhishek Banerjee), whose denial is a copout.
But distance makes the heart grow fonder. It’s almost nostalgic to watch Lust Stories 3, the latest quartet of shorts from a foursome of established Hindi film directors. For one, it reclaims the diversity of desire in a culture notorious for treating sex as an exotic and banned drug. Lust is framed as a middle-class construct (Vikramaditya Motwane), a weapon (Kiran Rao), a medicine (Shakun Batra), and a language (Vishal Bhardwaj). It’s unlike other thematic assortments, in the sense that there is no standout or weak segment. Each one feels like a different organ, and when stitched together, they make up a body that excavates the shaky bridge between love and libido.
Motwane’s segment, which plays first, bridges the influence of pop culture with middle-class desire and self-worth. It canonises a familiar problem, revolving around two 40-year-old mothers — a prudish Padma (Radhika Apte) and an adventurous Shonali (Konkona Sen Sharma) — stuck in sexless marriages. The two women have reached a stage where all they want is to be wanted again. A corny K-drama gives Shonali a daring idea: a husband swap (reclaiming the iconic Akshay Kumar hand-swap gesture from Ajnabee) on a weekend trip. Padma’s husband, Hemant (Vijay Varma), senses his straight-laced wife’s frustration, unlike Shonali’s husband Debu (Abhishek Banerjee), whose denial is a copout. Given that one of the women is more performative and aggressive, it’s not hard to predict the ‘punchline’ of the premise. Despite a gimmicky resolution, it does a decent job of implying that spicing up a marriage is not everyone’s cup of laced tea. Sometimes, rekindling the fire demands a burn wound or two.
