Lust Stories
2018
by
A Kashyap, K Johar, Zoya Akhtar, Dibakar Banerjee
I was a bit
surprised to see #KaranJohar make a better short film than #AnuragKashyap, #ZoyaAkthar and #DibakarBanerjee. His segment is not just the most
entertaining of the lot, but also the most audacious and beautifully written.
He explores
the forbidden topic in Indian domestic sexual life-the Big O, or the female
orgasm. It wud have been tempting to launch into a medico-psychological discourse, or a feminist rant, quite how Anurag Kashyap succumbs to in his own segment. But Karan Jo has not compromised with storytelling. There is a very hot #NehaDhupia, a divorced teacher in a girl’s school playing mentor to a new
inductee, #KiaraAdvani. The latter gets married to #VickyKaushal, a small-town
simpleton, who loves the girl but knows not how to properly satisfy her
bride. In a fortuitous turn of events, a disappointed and unfulfilled Kaira lays her hands on Neha’s #vibrator and brings
it home. What follows is perhaps the most hilariously sexual, and a very bold
scene filmed on a young, promising actress. Hats off to K JO and Kiara for
pulling this off without making it look
cheap and yet bringing the message home. Neha Dhupia lights up the screen these
days with her cameos. But its Vicky Kaushal who just wins us over with his role
of a goofy, bumbling but a loving spouse. First in #Raazi, and now with this, Vicky
has demonstrated how to evoke love while playing a husband.
Anurag’s
segment on the other hand follows #RadhikaApte, a college teacher in a long-distance open marriage, who is hell bent on exploring and experimenting with her sexuality, while enjoying her life. She has a short fling with a fellow teacher, and another one with a student, with whom
she falls in love but does not acknowledge. Quite ironic, considering that she
started off her monologue with the declaration that guys fall in love with women
after having sex with them and have problem keeping sex and love separate. But
suffering as she does from a severe case of foot in the mouth, and ‘severe sexual
analytica’, she ends up becoming what she dreads in men. Another very
irritating aspect of her character is her obsession with truth, which at best
is a kaleidoscope. According to her, she was fine with promiscuity but wanted
full disclosure. This can be a template, but can this be the only one? AK has
dwelt more with issues of confused sexuality, rather than pure lust. After a point, Radhika Apte gets very hyper and irritating. That is how she
acts, subtlety can go take a walk.
Dibakar Banerjee
also fails to explore lust, as such, and ends up solving a routine love
triangle. A married woman, ignored, dissatisfied, played by #ManishaKoirala, is
having an affair with the best friend of her husband. The penny drops one
day, and the trio come to a tacit understanding. How could you expect such a
lukewarm fare from Dibakar? #SanjayKapoor, Manisha Koirala and #JaydeepAhlawat, all have acted well, but frankly, there is no script to work with.
Zoya Akthar
has delivered a very sensitive short film. She trains her camera on a Mumbai
maid (#BhumiPadnekar) who keeps the house of, and has deep physical intimacy with, a bachelor (#NeilBhoopalam). Life is
fun, till his parents arrive from Meerut one day. The maid silently watches her
paramour’s marriage getting fixed and his moments of tenderness with his fiancé. There
is a bit of poignancy, and yet resignation, about the whole situation. We do
not get to know about the maid’s life
outside the flat. It is this lack of knowledge which allows Bhumi to deliver a
masterful performance.
All the four
segments dwell upon female sexuality and taboos related to it. Sex is a means to
realize oneself and fulfil one’s personality. Although, Indians have a habit of chatting, discussing and arguing a lot, yet in the previous century, such topics were brushed under the carpet. Of
course, we still fucked like maniacs, as is evidenced by our burgeoning population. It
is only now that internet and social
media have freed up the shacked human libido. One can watch porn with the click
of a button and enter into a relationship with a few taps on his smartphone. The
process of freeing sexuality from social needs is now underway. Life need not be
a compromise. One can have it all, and in whatever quantity they crave for. The film is
a right effort in that direction. I wish, though, that there was a bit more lust and
less of lecture as a whole. A bit of more sensuality won't have hurt the cause. I
wonder if it was by design that all the scenes of intimacy in the four segments depicted only the coital scenes and blanked out any tenderness or foreplay. This
has taken titillation quotient out of the narrative, which I don't think
benefits the film at all.
#luststories #anthology #sex
#luststories #karanjohar #zoyaakhtar #anuragkashyap #dibakarbanejee #vickykaushal #radhikapate #keiraadvani #manishakoirala #bhumipadnekar
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