We watched Lust Stories 2 last night and here is a full on spoiler-filled review for y'all!
BEWARE- FULL SPOILERS AHEAD- SKIP THIS POST IF YOU DON'T LIKE SPOILERS
Lust Stories 2 is an anthology of four short films centred around, what else, lust. The themes for each of these stories are different and so, as an anthology, it works well. Also, all the stories are women-centric, which given the theme is always nice to see. So, without any further ado, let's dive into the individual short films.
The first story is directed by R. Balki and is, honestly, one of the most ridiculous and far-fetched ones in the anthology! While it did make me chuckle on multiple occasions, the whole schtick of a Dadima insisting on her granddaughter have sex before marriage with a potential semi-arranged marriage groom is just ridiculously far fetched given the social milieu and the kind of family shown in this story, which is an average middle-upper-middle class family!
Can you imagine your or my grandmother insisting on sex and orgasms with a potential arranged marriage suitor before deciding on marrying him?! And can you imagine said grandmother saying this in front of you, your parents, your potential husband and his parents?! All in the first formal meeting of all parties!
If you've picked up your jaw off the floor, we can continue! :)
Neena Gupta as the sex positive Dadi is hilarious but what is even this story?! She tells her granddaughter, played by a coy and blushing Mrunal Thakur, gory details about her rigourous sex life both pre and post marriage with her late husband! She also proudly shows off a packet of old condoms (yay for safe sex and go Granny!) but this is the kind of TMI no grandmother will share and no granddaughter wants to ever know!!
I swear there wouldn't be enough bleach to pour into my ears if I had to listen to my grandparents sexy time adventure. No thank-you! And my paternal grandparents had a love marriage and were deeply in love and we've heard their story but thankfully never ever about anything scandalous.
Low key very cringe. And this story was clearly made for virality, shock value and for memes I guess.
And very, very try hard.
On to the next.
Konkona Sen Sharma directs a story about voyeurism and female desire, juxtaposed with the lower classes need for private space. I know I was supposed to like this. I was meant to like this. And it's not like I didn't. I did, I like the nuance and sensitivity with which Konkona tells this story and looks at desire, the gaze is decidedly female and not exploitative. I also really appreciated that the husband of the domestic worker was not some sadly stereotypical violent man, he was gentle and kind and sensitive and sensible. I liked that there was no unnecessary violence. The acting of every single actor was superb and pitch perfect. The showdown between the women was explosive and so so believable. Also, I loved the Tillotama's flat's decor. It's very my aesthetic and I loved seeing so much of this flat in this story.
But...it felt too long? This story is definitely the longest out of the four and after a point...I just wanted it to wrap-up. The end was also unreal. You don't reconcile from a showdown like this, you don't move on or forget and forgive. It's so awkward to try and be in each other's life again. I don't think anyone would bounce back from a situation like this.
And also both women and what they were doing was so wrong. Both of them.
The domestic worker bringing her husband in to have sex every single afternoon was such a breach of boundaries and ethics. As was home owner watching them and getting off. It's so wrong. Both of them. It gave me such an ick. And I know now it's not PC to kink shame anyone but man this was so fucked up.
Weirdly enough this might be my least favourite story in the anthology. Which I know I am it the minority because I know everyone else is going gaga over this.
Ok next.
Sujoy Ghosh directs a what I would call a thriller and a very obvious one at that. You can tell from the get go what's about to unfold and what exactly is going on. Still, I enjoyed the ride. This was short and crisp and satisfying in the end.
However this didn't answer a lot of questions, which would take three extra minutes to answer. For example, I am still not sure if Anu, Vijay's current wife, was in on Shanti's murder, because where would Vijay have money to pay contract killers? Or she is in the dark?
Overall, this film was strictly okay but it could have been so much better given it was directed by Sujoy Ghosh and he just left so much for the audience to make sense of! Just shoddy work!
Next, Amit Ravindernath Sharma directs yet another thriller with a hint of lusting. Very competently performed by Kumud Mishra and Kajol, this is a story about lust, violence, power and the backfiring of plans.
Fyi, TW for SA and Violence.
Kajol, an ex-sex worker, is now married to a local raja of sorts, whose kingdom and riches are long gone but not his sense of entitlement and power, which he wields over his local populace, especially, the bodies of women. He is a nasty piece of goods, who rapes and assaults every woman in his path, especially, his long-suffering wife.
Finally, Kajol has had enough. When she finds out that her erstwhile brothel has a young woman, who has recently tested positive for HIV, a plan forms in her mind. Not a very good plan, as we find out.
Anyway, this plan was a train wreck from the get-go. I mean, there are easily five ways to get rid of one's drunk and debauched husband that are more effective than what she had planned!
The events of the story are supposed to be some kind of a "twist" but I saw this coming the moment Kajol (and the audience) is told about the young HIV positive woman! Very predictable. As was the eventual outcome of this, honestly, harebrained plan!
However, what was most disturbing was Kajol's character thinking it was okay to bring this young, once-full-of-potential, naive young girl into her life just so her POS husband could rape and exploit her! Just because the girl is a sex worker does not mean that she should be made a target of a rapist! Or that it was somehow okay for a sex worker to be raped and abused in the hopes that the sick husband also gets HIV! This is problematic on so many levels that I just can't stop seething! Basically, Kajol's character strips this young woman of her humanity just because she is a sex worker with HIV?! And as the audience are we expected to applaud this brilliant plan of hers?! Also, if your plan works exactly as you had hoped, your husband get HIV, you know he rapes other women, so what about their safety? Do you not care if they get infected?
So in this light the final twist makes me a little happy.
Final Thoughts: This anthology is what I'd like to call timepass. Worth a one time watch. Not as bad so many reviews are making it out to be. It's OK. It has it's problems, but if you have nothing to watch this weekend give this dekho.
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