Lust Stories 3 Review: Konkona Sen Sharma, Ali Fazal And Vijay Varma Impress In This Bold But Boring Anthology
Lust Stories 3 brings four new stories directed by Vikramaditya Motwane, Kiran Rao, Shakun Batra and Vishal Bhardwaj. Despite a strong cast and promising premises, the anthology struggles with weak writing, flat chemistry and artificial intimate scenes. Its music emerges as the sole saving grace.
Lust Stories 3 Review: Konkona Sen Sharma, Ali Fazal And Vijay Varma Impress In This Bold But Boring Anthology | File photo
Title: Lust Stories 3
Directors: Vikramaditya Motwane, Kiran Rao, Shakun Batra and Vishal Bhardwaj
Cast: Konkona Sen Sharma, Radhika Apte, Vijay Varma, Aditi Rao Hydari, Siddharth, Ali Fazal, Radhikka Madan and others
Where: Netflix
Rating: 1.5 stars
It’s back! The latest season of the Lust Stories franchise. Promising visuals of fresh stories served on a silver platter of erotica splashed with nuanced performances. Alas! If only this were true.
Two women frustrated because of lack of intimacy in their marriage plan to swap husbands, twin brothers with a secret stash of cash have a passionate affair with a nail artist, a couple going through divorce can’t seem to stop the action between the sheets and in 1987 a married part time teacher discovers her erotic writing abilities. These are the four short stories in Lust Stories 3. Each one is more atrocious than the other. The premise of all four attempts was promising yet each one falls flat like the expectations of its women.
Actors’ performances
Out of the mammoth cast, Konkona shines as usual, Ali Fazal is excellent, Vijay Varma impresses, Gurfatheh Pirzada (in a double role) is wooden, Sana Thampi (Lisa) is unbearable, Radhikka Madan is annoying. However, the biggest disappointments are Aditi Rao Hydari, Siddharth and Radhika Apte. There is absolutely zero chemistry between Aditi and Siddharth (given that they are married in real life). Abhishek Banerjee is barely there. Yup, everyone lacks chemistry except for, surprisingly, Konkona and Radhika Apte while they are in a bathtub imagining their favourite South Korean drama characters.
Direction
Shakun Batra, Kiran Rao, Vishal Bhardwaj and Vikramaditya Motwane fail to bring a sense of balance to the chaos. Every main character (except in Kiran’s film) is sexually frustrated. There is a “four” theme that runs throughout the 2 hours 44 minutes runtime. Four days ago, four weeks ago and lastly four decades ago. Apart from the four decades ago mention, none of the other “fours” make any sense. The biggest problem is the lack of depth in characters. Never ending conversations (especially in Shakun’s film slow down the pace even more. Frankly, all four directorial efforts are dull and one wonders why such silly stories were chosen by them considering three out of these four actually co-wrote the stories.
Music and aesthetics
The only saving grace of Lust Stories 3 is its music. The tunes of Sneha Khanwalkar, Ram Sampath, Yash Sahai and Vishal Bhardwaj are catchy, melodious and impressive. There are a bunch of “intimacy coordinators” attached to this project, however, they seemed to have added nothing new apart from making the actor feel comfortable. Many of the intimate scenes feel too choreographed and artificial and that kills the purpose of all four films’ core theme of lust.
FPJ Verdict
It won’t be surprising if this joke of an “anthology” will top Netflix’s chart for the next few days (because you know why). Mentions of “bedroom ke phatakes”, Manto and “addiction” are not sufficient to bring soul to stories. So, even if you have absolutely nothing meaningful to do, skip Lust Stories 3. Hopefully, the makers will do better if they plan a fourth season.
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