Lust Stories 2

Lust Stories 2
File:Lust Stories 2.jpg Official release poster
Directed by	R. Balki Konkona Sen Sharma Amit Ravindernath Sharma Sujoy Ghosh
Produced by	Ronnie Screwvala Ashi Dua Sara
Starring	Kajol Mrunal Thakur Kumud Mishra Angad Bedi Amruta Subhash Neena Gupta Tamannaah Bhatia Tillotama Shome Vijay Varma
Music by	Aman Pant
Cinematography	Tapan Tushar Basu Anand Bansal
Edited by	Urvashi Saxena Nayan H. K. Bhadra Sanyukta Kaza Chandrashekhar Prajapati
Production company	RSVP Movies Flying Unicorn Entertainment
Distributed by	Netflix
Release date	29 June 2023 (2023-06-29)
Running time	132 minutes
Country	India
Language	Hindi

Lust Stories 2 is a 2023 Indian Hindi-language anthology film, and second installment of Lust Stories, consisting of four short film segments directed by R. Balki, Konkona Sen Sharma, Amit Ravindernath Sharma and Sujoy Ghosh. Co-produced by Ronnie Screwvala of RSVP and Ashi Dua Sara of Flying Unicorn Entertainment, the film has an ensemble cast including Mrunal Thakur, Kumud Mishra, Amruta Subhash, Angad Bedi, Neena Gupta, Kajol, Tamannaah Bhatia, Tillotama Shome, Vijay Varma and others. It was released on Netflix on 29 June 2023.

Plot

The film is a series of four short stories on the topic of love, sex, violence, and relationships.

Made for Each Other

Veda and Arjun are friends, whose families want to arrange their marriage. At a dinner celebrating the couple, Veda and Arjun's parents remark at the two being a 'perfect match' due to their shared hobbies and interests. Veda's widowed, religious grandmother walks in, and is keen to know if the two have engaged in sex. Veda's grandmother explains that physical compatibility is important in a relationship, as interests can change over time. She recounts to Veda her own marriage, in which she and her late husband always kept each other satisfied. Taking cues from this, Veda and Arjun sleep together after a night out at a club. Veda seems happy at having had intimacy, but is not completely satisfied. Attributing it to their initial nervousness, she and Arjun continue to hook up, albeit inside expensive hotel rooms as their parents are still averse to the idea. Finally, they visit Veda's grandmother one afternoon, claiming to have understood how to satisfy the other in bed. Veda's grandmother is pleased and consents to the marriage. She offers her room to the couple for their wedding night to use as their honeymoon suite.

The Mirror

Ishita is a designer, in her early 40s, who is single and lives by herself. She suffers from frequent migraines. Her maid, Seema, visits during the day, to clean her apartment. One afternoon, Ishita walks in on Seema having sex with her husband, Kamal, in her bedroom. Too shocked to confront them, Ishita hides while the couple finish and leave. Ishita realizes this is a daily occurrence but is unable to stop it. She also realizes being turned on by watching them have sex. The next day, she secretly starts hiding in her apartment, to spy on them through a mirror and leaves her office daily around 3 pm on the pretence of seeing an acupuncturist for her migraines. One day, Seema spots Ishita in the same mirror and realizes she is being watched. Unable to confront Ishita lest she be fired, but also excited by having someone watch her, she continues and pretends as if nothing has happened. One afternoon, Ishita accidentally knocks something over, causing a commotion and forcing Seema to confront her. The two hurl accusations at each other and Seema is fired. She struggles to land another job, while Ishita cannot find another maid as rumours about the altercation have spread. At night, Kamal and Seema argue with each other outside their tiny one-room apartment, right where she found and yelled at her daughter for conversing with her boyfriend. Kamal is at first angry with Seema for screaming at her for something trivial in public at odd hours of the night, which then evolved into an argument about her willingly allowing an invasion of their privacy by Ishita but reconciles when he realizes she did so intentionally as a turn on. Some weeks later, Ishita and Seema run into each other while buying groceries. They enquire about the other's wellbeing, and Seema asks if she can come back to work. Ishita agrees, and hands over the keys to her apartment. The next day, Ishita sneaks back into her apartment at 3pm, indicating a return to the old patterns.

Sex with the Ex

A successful CEO of a company, who is married but has a strained relationship with his wife, meets with an accident while driving his old car. Before the accident, he had a video call with his girlfriend, who distracted him and caused him to crash into a tree while trying to avoid hitting a cyclist. Unable to start his car or use his phone, he seeks help from the cyclist and they go to a nearby village. He asks a reluctant mechanic to fix his car, but there is no phone signal available. He goes to a coffee shop and hears a familiar song playing nearby. He follows the sound and finds a woman in a red saree dancing at a community hall. He tries to approach her, but she denies being the person he thinks she is and asks him to leave. A police officer arrives and addresses her by the name he called her, which makes him happy. Inside her house, it is revealed that they were once married, but she disappeared ten years ago. He is thrilled to see her again, but she wants him to leave. They recall their past and have conversations, during which he behaves inappropriately towards her. She repeatedly asks him to go away, but he refuses. They discuss the events leading up to her disappearance, and she suspects that their friend Anu was involved. He reveals that he married Anu and had children with her, becoming the CEO of Anu's father's company. This angers Shanti, who thinks Anu orchestrated her abduction to marry Vijay. They have sex, and while lying together, Shanti mentions the pregnancy test she took before her disappearance. Vijay's response reveals that he manipulated the situation and planned everything to marry Anu. Shanti realises this and confronts him, and he admits to suffocating and killing her with a pillow. In order to escape the arriving policeman, Vijay escapes through a window. Back at his car, he sees people pulling his body out, thinking he is dead because he didn't respond. Shanti appears next to him and tells him he should have returned when he had the chance to which he screams.

Tilchatta

Suraj Singh is a wealthy former minor king in rural Rajasthan, who lives in a palace with his wife and step-son. He is a sexual abuser and routinely assaults his wife, Devyani, as well as other young girls in the town. He had married Devyani after lusting for her in a prostitution house and took in her son too. He assaults a maid working at the palace, forcing her to quit. On a regular weekly call, Devyani's mother, who runs a prostitution house in another town, tells Devyani about a young prostitute having "the disease" (HIV), after getting it through a client. She feels bad for the girl, as her life is ruined at a young age. Meanwhile, Devyani is preparing her 20-year-old son, Ankur, to move to United Kingdom for higher education. Ankur is reluctant to leave his mother at the mercy of Suraj. However, Devyani's plan is to follow Ankur abroad, once he is able to settle down. Suraj discourages Ankur in his plans for education and chides him for his unknown father. Devyani hires a young maid, Rekha, to replace the one Suraj assaulted. Rekha is 18 years old and innocent, and Suraj sets his eyes on her. On the pretext of getting a massage, he touches her inappropriately before being walked in on by Ankur. Suraj leaves but Ankur notices Rekha's disheveled appearance as she adjusts her clothing. That night, Devyani hears sounds of moaning from an adjacent room. She proceeds towards the source of the sound but seems pleased. Unknown to Suraj, Rekha is the prostitute from Devyani's mother's town, whom Devyani installed in the house for Suraj to get the disease after he inevitably rapes her. Devyani is interrupted by Suraj stumbling into the courtyard, drunk and unable to walk. Suraj passes out, and Devyani turns back to the source of the sound. Her expression changes to horror, as she realizes she is listening to the sounds of Ankur and Rekha having sex.

Cast

R Balki's Segment - Made For Each Other

• Mrunal Thakur as Veda
• Neena Gupta as Veda's grandmother
• Angad Bedi as Arjun, Veda's fiancé
• Kanupriya Pandit as Veda's mother
• Hemant Kher as Veda's father

Konkona Sen Sharma's Segment - The Mirror

• Tillotama Shome as Ishita
• Amruta Subhash as Seema, Ishita's house help
• Konkona Sen Sharma as Sameera (Voice-over), Ishita's friend
• Shrikant Yadav as Kamal, Seema's husband

Sujoy Ghosh's Segment - Sex With Ex

• Vijay Varma as Vijay Chawhan
• Tamannaah Bhatia as Shanti, Vijay's first wife
• Mukti Mohan as Anita aka Anu, Vijay's second wife
• Jennifer Piccinato as Nisha, Vijay's girlfriend
• Jugal Hansraj as David Chaudhary
• Tarun Khanna as Inspector Inderjit Singh

Amit Sharma's Segment - Tilchatta

• Kajol as Smt.Devyani Singh / Chanda, Maharaj Suraj's Mistress
• Kumud Mishra as Maharaj Suraj Bhanumal Singh of Lal Kotla
• Anushka Kaushik as Rekhaji
• Zeeshan Nadaf as Kuwar Ankur Singh, Son of Maharaj Suraj Singh
• Payal Pande as Batari, Maharaj Suraj Singh's house maid
• Vibha Chibber as Mausi, Brothel madam

Music

Lust Stories 2
Soundtrack album
Released	8 June 2023 (2023-06-08) (First Single)
Recorded	2018
Studio	Netflix
Genre	Feature Film soundtrack
Language	Hindi
Label	Sangeet Music

Track listing
No.	Title	Singer(s)	Length
1.	"Khelo Khellum"	Aman Pant, Kinjal Chatterjee, Sapna Sand	2:22
2.	"Jab Koi Baat Bigad Jaaye"	Marianne D'Cruz Aiman, Shazneen Arethna, Crystal Sequeira, Dean Valerian Sequeira, Thomson Andrews, Rahul Pandey

Release

The film was released on Netflix on 29 June 2023.

Reception

Critic Sukanya Verma from Rediff.com reviewed Lust Stories 2 as a diverse anthology that explores lust beyond sexual aspects,gave a rating of 3 out of 5 stars. She praised Konkona Sen Sharma's segment for its intimate storytelling and social context. The segment delves into the primal nature of lust between two characters, portrayed by Tillotama Shome and Amruta Subhash. Verma further discusses Sujoy Ghosh's segment, which explores the encounters of Vijay Varma and Tamannaah Bhatia, delving into the subconscious and guilt. She mentions the fanciful visuals and eerie atmosphere of the segment, which focuses less on explicit representations of sex and more on the toxic nature of lust within an individual. She appreciated the enigmatic and imperfect nature of Amit Ravindernath Sharma's concluding segment, addressing domestic violence and casteism. Verma expressed disappointment in the anthology's lack of queer narratives but acknowledged its potential as a streaming franchise. Saibal Chatterjee of NDTV rated the film 3/5 and she described it as a mixed bag of stories and themes. While bursts of passion are present, Chatterjee felt that they are not the main focus. The opening story is criticized for its sterile approach, but Neena Gupta's performance stands out. "The Mirror" is highlighted as the turning point, exploring female desire in a complex manner. "Sex with Ex" is a genre exercise with the captivating performances of leads, who bring chemistry and intrigue to their roles as a woman who vanished mysteriously and her one-time husband, while "Tilchatta" provides a fitting end with Kajol's solid performance. Overall, Chatterjee felt that the show offers a range of narratives, delivering occasional passionate storytelling.

Debiparna Chakraborty from Best of Netflix gave the anthology 2/5 but praised Neena Gupta's role in the first story. She also praised Konkona Sen Sharma's short "The Mirror", writing "With sweat and spit and other bodily fluids oozing, this short drives in the point that sex can be strange and messy, especially when it steps out of the confines of straight-laced monogamous heteronormativity. It no longer remains palatable or clean."

Shubhra Gupta writing for The Indian Express found Konkona Sen Sharma's segment, "The Mirror," to be the most complex and satisfying. Gupta criticized the lack of passion and avoidance of intimacy in the first episode. The third episode left the reviewer confused about its genre. Gupta praised the performances in the fourth episode but noted the smaller impact of the marquee name, Kajol. Overall, Gupta appreciated the exploration of class and desire in "The Mirror" but criticized the lack of representation of marginalized communities in the anthology. The anthology exploring desi sexuality, receives positive feedback from Monika Rawal Kukreja of Hindustan Times. She highlights the engaging nature of anthologies and praises the four filmmakers for their different perspectives on female sexuality. Kukreja particularly enjoys Konkona Sen Sharma's segment and appreciates the performances of Tillotama Shome and Amruta Subhash. While she finds Sujoy Ghosh's segment to be the weakest, she credits Amit Sharma's segment for its twist in the climax. Overall, Kukreja recommends Lust Stories 2 for its brilliant performances and the message it portrays.

See also

• List of Netflix India Originals

External links

• Lust Stories 2 on IMDb
• Lust Stories 2 on Netflix