(Lack)Lust(er) Stories

Image courtesy Wikipedia.

I like AIB and when they came up with the  - ‘The Truth about lust’ video I knew that I’d end up watching Lust Stories and here we are with the review. There goes one more thing in my bag of bad choices🤦. No, no read on. I promise to be funny. Before I proceed further please know that there will be spoilers😈. I hate Karan Johar and I would also recommend that you never rely on KJo for personal hygiene tips😐. Having said that let’s begin!

The first story is directed by Anurag Kashyap and it features Radhika Apte and Akash Thosar of the Sairat (OG) fame. I like both these actors and as the story unfolded I couldn’t help but think that Anurag Kashyap may have found inspiration for this story from his own life. The story is as complex as the male gender makes out women to be and just as simple as men would like to presume they are. Irrespective of the nature of relationship, the moment you find yourself drawn to another person and begin a relationship before ending the one you are already in, it is decent to let the person you are with know that you are dating, seeing or sleeping with someone else. That’s called courtesy. I like to believe and hope that people are sensible enough to do that because love isn’t the easiest word to define. Some people on the other hand choose to move on without explanation or two-time. When there are no clear boundaries marked in a relationship, is mentioning other partners a pre requisite? This story really tries to explore relationships as they are today. Where open marriages, multiple partners and the predominant campus romance are what we see around us pretty openly now. At one point these three were the hush-hush affairs. People no longer care and good on them but you end up wondering if the protagonist can emotionally handlethese multiple relationships?🤔

The second story is directed by Zoya Akhtar featuring Bhumi Pednekar and Neil Bhoopalam. This story is about the maid and the bhaiya of the house getting naughty with each other. Except one day the whole, “bhaiya ki shaadi tair hogayi hai” happens. This story is very realistic in terms of how things actually happen. Clearly the maid and bhaiyacan never be together because doing so would be breaking societal norms and our society is clearly not ready for that. The maid eats the sweets given to her and like any other day leaves when her work is done and that is that. Life goes on and all is well or maybe not. We’ll never know as the story ends there. No, no I am not being judgy. Keep reading.🙎

The third story is by directed Dibakar Banerjee featuring Manisha Koirala, Sanjay Kapoor, Jaideep Ahlawat. This story is about a human who is a woman by gender, wife by marriage and mother as she has two kids who finds herself in the middle of a ‘rut’ in her relationship. Ergo she ends up in a clandestine relationship with her husband’s best friend. From what I understand, the protagonist enjoys coitus when her partner is in tears. Basically it is the story about a girl who likes to make boys cry and then have sex with them. In short, the story is about a girl who got to have her cake and ate it too. Fin.🎂

The final story is directed by dear old KJo featuring Kiara Advani and Vicky Kaushal. Oh boy, sit back and hold a pillow so you don’t cringe and have a ‘fit’. Scene  - Arranged marriage. Couple has sex except man races off to the finish line in just under 5. Girl tries to talk to boy about how it is just fun for one of them. Boy doesn’t get it. Girl walks in on her colleague using a vibrator in the school library. Vibrator gets confiscated by the Principal. Girl steals the vibrator and takes it home. This is where the horror show begins. Now I don’t know if the happy dildo was confiscated right after the Librarian was done using it or if it was sterilized and then handed over to the Principal. Let’s just assume it was sterilized. Girl straight up rushes to her room and proceeds to use it. (Temple bell sounds for effect.) Just when she begins to use it the boy comes home all hurt and she rushes out to help him. Expect the boy’s granny unsuspectingly uses the vibrator remote to switch on the TV. Cut to  - “The Ugly Truth” restaurant scene. Except it happens in the living room of a very sanskari family. The girl even orgasms KJo style with K3G playing in the background. (Audience taali bajao -because hum desi hai aur sanskari hai aur hum bas issi sanskari family drama ke gaane par sex karenge or orgasm bhi!)See, its stunts like this that take away from the story. WHY! Anyhow the stories end here.😵

My personal take on these stories is that the women portrayed roles where they weren’t shown crying and pleading and begging on their knees in these twisted relationships. Instead they know what they want and they manage to get what they want and when they don’t, like sensible adults move on.

My Rating: 2.5/5(Overall) But 4/5 for the first two stories.

Recommend: Watch the first 3 stories for the story line. The last one well, see I don’t get the whole “applaud for masturbating scene” when they didn’t deal with the whole hygiene and safety bit. If there is an epidemic of some STI spreading in a girl’s hostel because all girls used the same vibrator just like the protagonist, you know who to catch hold of.

P.S: Sex education should be made mandatory in high schools. If we are going to talk about sex, we need to educate people about safety before the deed.