Ranking all 12 short films of Lust Stories franchise: Karan Johar’s K3G climax to The Mirror - The Indian Express
Lust Stories followed Bombay Talkies (2013), an anthology created to celebrate 100 years of Indian cinema. It premiered on Netflix in 2018 with the same set of four filmmakers attached to direct a short film each — Anurag Kashyap, Dibakar Banerjee, Zoya Akhtar, and Karan Johar. The success of that anthology spawned a franchise involving four more directors, which has now reached its third instalment. Here’s a definitive ranking of all the 12 segments released so far.
Konkona Sen Sharma had directed only one feature, the assured coming-of-age film A Death in the Gunj (2016), when she was approached to helm a short film for Lust Stories 2. With co-writer Pooja Tolani, Konkona whipped up a heady cocktail of class, desire, and gender, arguing that lust has an intersectional impact. Tillotama Shome and Amruta Subhash were pitch-perfect as the stealthy, peeking partners-in-crime, who would snap back to their power dynamic as an upper-middle-class employer and her domestic help in the very next instant. With The Mirror, Konkona singlehandedly redeemed a rather lacklustre sequel to a saucy anthology.
Vishal Bhardwaj takes forward the conversation Karan Johar started with his segment in the first Lust Stories — a wife disgruntled with her otherwise green-husband being incapable (or unaware) of fulfilling a woman’s desires. Vishal plucks the same story out of North India and plants it in Hyderabad of the late 1980s. That shift in setting allows Vishal to play around with the city’s signature textures, colours, patterns (that blush-red rose quilt!), and diction — all of which add more colour to the film’s central idea. Aditi Rao Hydari and Siddharth are cast perfectly, as a Hyderabadi literature professor and her homeopathy doctor-husband/object of desire. And of course, one can’t miss out Gajraj Rao, the affectionate father-in-law who gets his message conveyed somehow despite having a paan perennially stuffed in his mouth — underlining that it’s the intent that matters the most, far more than the words (or the lack of them!).
In a close call, Dibakar Banerjee takes the cake for his segment in the first Lust Stories. What begins as a familiar tale of infidelity gets a wicked twist: Manisha Koirala is cheating on Sanjay Kapoor with his best friend, Jaideep Ahlawat, who then has to listen as Sanjay confides in him about suspecting his wife of having an affair. Even after Manisha confessed her affair to her husband, and asks her boyfriend to end their affair once and for all, she realises the brotherhood between the two friends still remains unscathed. So, she takes matters in her own hands, and puts both men in a spot, thus getting the last laugh.
Karan Johar would take a cue from Swara Bhaskar’s character in Shashanka Ghosh’s buddy comedy Veere Di Wedding, which released in the same month, and get his leading lady, Kiara Advani, to go the “Apna hath Jagannath” way. Johar put together a hilarious montage of Kiara counting till three before her husband Vicky Kaushal hits an orgasmic state every time they get into bed. It’s only when Kiara takes matters into her own hands (literally) that she finally gets close to climaxing, before her vibrator’s remote slips out of her control. By juxtaposing her ascent to climax with the crescendo of the title track of his 2001 blockbuster ‘family drama’ Kabhi Khushi Kabhie Gham, Johar proves he not only has a keen insight into relationships, but is also one of the most self-deprecating filmmakers in India.
Shakun Batra stuck to familiar territory with his choice of segment — a fly-on-the-wall piece on a disintegrating marriage, on the lines of his past features Kapoor & Sons (2016) and Gehraiyaan (2021). But here, he also creates a tense, tight, and palpable confrontation scene between Ali Fazal and Radhika Madan, who play a newly married couple. It may remind you of Noah Baumbach’s Marriage Story (2019), except that it ends in torrid sex. Physical intimacy becomes their only language, much like Sally Rooney’s Normal People — as soon as they are satisfied, they’re back to being agitated.
One can argue this segment was too verbose for something as tactile as Lust Stories, but Radhika Apte’s monologues landed because of the deliberately erratic writing, her pitch-perfect animated delivery, and the tangential angling of the camera — neither an over-the-shoulder shot (implying the absence of any confidant) nor a fourth-wall break (implying she wants to stay as enigmatic to the audience as everyone else in the film). It’s one of the most unpredictable yet relatable characters in Kashyap’s filmography — one who wants it all, both the attachment of a younger boy and the stability of a mature relationship.
Vikramaditya Motwane had everything going for his Lust Stories 3 segment — a delectable premise of partner swapping, a casting coup with Konkona Sen Sharma and Radhika Apte, and an added layer of K-dramas serving as the pedestal for superior sex lives. Sumukhi Suresh also came up with some crackling dialogues — like “Wo Korea hai, ye Kandivali hai” and “Hemu kaun hai?” But even the 40-minute short feels like it overstays its welcome. Despite reaching several potential endings that could have made for better climaxes, it continues to indulge in foreplay until it finally fizzles out.
Speaking of all foreplay, no climax, Zoya Akhtar’s segment in the first Lust Stories kicks off with a bang — or rather a bang-bang between Neil Bhoopalam and his domestic help, Bhumi Pednekar. As they clean up after the climax, he says, “Gandi saali“, and she hits back, “Nanga saala,” which also describe their perceived and hidden identity, respectively. But once his parents and a prospective wife enter the picture, the orchestrated monotony injected into the film soon turns into a loop of nothingness.
Kajol and Kumud Mishra in a troubled marriage may seem enticing as a premise on any given day. But Amit R Sharma lent it even more doom and gloom with the climactic twist, upturning a survivor’s coming-of-age into a cautionary tale. It was also a 180-degree subversion of Sharma’s 2018 breakthrough family drama Badhaai Ho, when a woman choosing her happiness over her family’s doesn’t exactly yield desired results.
Kiran Rao makes a surprisingly eventful and fast-paced short. It’s also a love letter to the proverbial Mumbai spirit, balancing hustle with lust, and ambition with love. But it’s not quite on point when it comes to exploring the intricacies of lust. Perhaps the biggest point it makes about lust is that in the cutthroat world of today, it can be used as a weapon of choice. But there’s enough to relish in here — particularly the little motifs that Kiran peppers all over the film — furniture borrowed from a set, a cat that an intruder is allergic to, and a rose perfume whiff that gives the secret away.
R Balki robs Neena Gupta of her timeless oomph, and ages her to make a point. She’s a daadi who advises her granddaughter Mrunal Thakur to tick all the boxes, including sexual compatibility, with her prospective husband (Angad Bedi), before tying the knot. But the segment is mostly reduced to one wordplay-ridden sermon after another.
The best thing that came out of Sujoy Ghosh’s segment in Lust Stories 2 is probably the short-lived real-life relationship between the leads, Tamannnah Bhatia and Vijay Varma. In the film, they play ex-lovers who cross paths when he’s remarried and she is, well, a ghost. If Sujoy would’ve saved this one for Ghost Stories 2, it would have made more sense. Or maybe not even there.
