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Movie Review: Lust Stories 3 (2026)

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3 Stars (out of 4)

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The latest entry in Netflix’s anthology series, Lust Stories 3 is an easy and fun watch, for the most part. Three of the short films by well-regarded directors fit the theme perfectly, while the fourth feels out of place. Overall, this is a light bit of entertainment with some really great acting from an impressive collection of performers.

Vikramaditya Motwane

Director Vikramaditya Motwane starts things off on a high note, thanks largely to his stellar cast. Paddy (Radhika Apte) and Shona (Konkona Sen Sharma) are best friends, co-workers, and neighbors. Both women feel like their marriages — Paddy’s to Hemant (Vijay Varma) and Shona’s to Debu (Abhishek Banerjee) — have lost their romantic sparks. Bold Shona proposes doing something they saw on a Hindi-dubbed Korean series that she and Paddy watch: swapping husbands.

Shy Paddy reluctantly agrees to try while the couples and their children are on vacation at a resort. The results are disastrous, of course, but in a funny way. Apte and Sen Sharma are hilarious throughout, carrying the short film almost entirely on their own. That’s not to put down Varma’s or Banerjee’s efforts, but the story’s focus is on the women, and they make the most of it. Sen Sharma’s delivery of the line “Us Kandivali women can’t have Korean dreams” is perfection.

Kiran Rao

Kiran Rao’s story follows two young, attractive people trying to find their footing in Mumbai. Lisa (Sana Thampi) is an apprentice nail technician, and Karan (Gurfateh Pirzada) delivers pizzas. He’s also got a side gig selling drugs. The two are immediately attracted to each other and begin a physical relationship. Of all the short films in the collection, this one features the most sex.

This is Thampi’s first acting role, but you’d never know it. She and Pirzada work well together showcasing the challenges of being young in an expensive city and trying to find joy where you can. Rao’s film takes some unexpected turns and is very entertaining as it explores the way lust makes some people do foolish things — but not everyone.

Shakun Batra

Shakun Batra’s film is the one that feels out of place in Lust Stories 3. Sailee (Radhikka Madan) and Varun (Ali Fazal) are getting divorced. Whenever they meet to hash out the details, it turns into an argument, which turns into sex. It’s a trope that doesn’t yield meaningful plot rewards, instead serving as the justification for including this segment in the anthology. The short film is just the main characters bickering until they find a way to discuss their problems constructively. This would’ve been better suited for Divorce Stories 3.

Vishal Bhardwaj

Given Vishal Bhardwaj’s fondness for literary adaptations, it’s fitting that he closes out the anthology with a tale of the written word’s power to inflame the senses. Aditi Rao Hydari plays Saira, a teacher and graduate student at a women’s university in Hyderabad in 1987. She’s married to Badru (Hydari’s real-life husband, Siddharth), a kind but clinical doctor. The young women Saira teaches are sex-obsessed, but their only familiarity with the subject comes through classical literature and the rare, illicit American romance novel. At her students’ encouragement, Saira writes her own erotic novel. It’s a hit with the girls… until it goes missing.

There’s something incredibly sweet about pairing a recently-married couple to perform in this story about romantic imagination. Whenever Saira imagines her dream lover, it’s Badru, but he’s traded his spectacles for sunglasses and replaced his clothes with a skimpy towel. Both actors are totally charming, as are the delightful supporting cast members. The requisite song sung by Rekha Bhardwaj is fun as well.

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Movie Review: Pataakha (2018)

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3 Stars (out of 4)

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Director Vishal Bhardwaj is a master world-builder, designing rich spaces for his characters to inhabit and filling them with evocative music of his own creation. Pataakha (“Firecracker“) is the latest example of Bhardwaj’s formidable skill.

Based on the short story Do Behnein (“Two Sisters“) by Charan Singh Pathik, Pataakha‘s plot is simple. Badki (Radhika Madan) and her younger sister Chhutki (Sanya Malhotra) are constantly at war, each blaming the other for her sorry lot in life. But when they set out to achieve their dreams independently, they discover they need each other more than they thought.

The tale feels like a familiar parable, something one might expect to find in a storybook for children, were it not for all the swearing and fighting. Badki and Chhutki are their small Rajasthani town’s source of entertainment, their curse-filled brawls drawing enthusiastic crowds. Every fight ends with the girls’ father, Bechara Bapu (Vijay Raaz), dragging his daughters home — but not before getting battered in the melee himself.

Adding to Pataakha‘s folkloric feeling is the presence of a trickster character, an itinerant jack-of-all trades named Dipper (Sunil Grover), whose joy in life is instigating fights between the sisters. He snitches on them to each other, and he invents conflict when things are too peaceful. When Badki and Chhutki get boyfriends — Jagan (Namit Das) and Vishnu (Abhishek Duhan), respectively — it gives Dipper more fuel to stoke the fires of war.

Bhardwaj is clearly fond of both the character of Dipper and the actor who plays him. This may be more perception than reality, but it’s almost like Grover’s face is in sharper focus than the other actors’ — and it certainly seems like he gets more closeups. Whether that’s true or not, my attention always gravitated toward Dipper, just to see what he was going to do or how he would react, no matter what other chaos was happening on screen.

For so much attention to be given to a secondary character — as delightful as he is — hints at Pataakha‘s biggest problem: there isn’t enough material to warrant a full-length feature film. Trimming the runtime by thirty minutes would’ve been a start, but Pataakha‘s story would feel most at home as part of a collection of short stories.

It’s by the strength of Bhardwaj’s world-building and the performances he gets from his actors that Pataakha is as enjoyable as it is. Raaz is charming as the girls’ flawed father, who lectures them on the dangers of smoking by showing them the warnings on a half-empty packet of cigarettes he pulls from his own pocket. Madan and Malhotra give it their all in what must have been a fun but exhausting shoot, spending most of their screentime fighting, screaming, and crying as they do. Das and Duhan are solid in their supporting roles.

The movie’s showstopping item number, “Hello Hello,” is another highlight. Written by Bhardwaj and sung by his wife, Rekha, the sexy song is brought to life onscreen by the incomparable Malaika Arora. Unlike many lesser item numbers, cinematographer Ranjan Palit keeps his camera a respectful distance from Arora, without zooming in on particular body parts. This is not just a matter of decency but an acknowledgement that, when Arora dances, you need to see her from head to toe.

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Movie Review: Ishqiya (2010)

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4 Stars (out of 4)

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My enjoyment of most movies doesn’t hinge completely on the quality of the acting. I suppose that, when done well, you’re not even supposed to notice the acting. But the three leads in Ishqiya elevate an otherwise small and straightforward story to a work of art.

The film opens on a loving young couple engaged in a disagreement. The wife, Krishna (Vidya Balan) asks her husband, Vidyadhar (Adil Hussain) to abandon his criminal ways. He’s non-committal, though he professes to love her. As she walks through a dark hallway carrying a sacred flame on a tray, the camera cuts to the exterior of the house as an explosion destroys one of the rooms.

We next see Krishna as she opens the gate surrounding what’s left of the house to admit two of her husband’s former associates. Khalujaan (Naseeruddin Shah) and Babban (Arshad Warsi) are an uncle-nephew pair of thieves on the run from their latest victim, Khalujaan’s brother-in-law. They arrive at the house hoping that Vidyadhar will be able to help them cross the border into Nepal. Krishna informs them that her husband is dead.

She allows them to hide out at her house until they can figure out an escape plan. Krishna’s beautiful voice, which she uses to sing old movie tunes, enchants Khalujaan, even though he’s old enough to be her father.

Khalujaan considers Krishna’s reserved nature evidence of her modesty; Babban thinks she’s hiding something. His suspicions are confirmed when Krishna reveals a dangerous plan to earn them enough money to pay off the brother-in-law and make them all rich.

Ishqiya has some of the best acting I’ve ever seen in a Hindi movie. Okay, any movie. Balan plays Krishna perfectly. She’s not your typical seductress. She’s cautious, as a woman who’s been living on her own should be, but she knows how to entice both men to fall for her. Whether that was part of her plan all along or just an impulse of a lonely woman, it’s impossible to tell.

Lately, Shah seems to only get cast in smaller, cameo roles that don’t give him much to do. Khalujaan is the meatiest role I’ve seen him play, and he’s tremendous. Shah is nearly 60, but plays Khulajaan like a teenager with a crush. The performance is both charming and heart-breaking because the odds are against Krishna reciprocating Khalujaan’s feelings.

Before Ishqiya, I disliked Arshad Warsi. In movies like Krazzy 4, Golmaal Returns, and Short Kut, I felt his performances were more loud than funny. I was happy to be proven wrong. Babban is a lech, but Warsi gives him a vulnerability that makes him a viable romantic match for Krishna. His falling for her is inevitable, and a lesser movie would make that love reason enough for her to fall in love with him. Thanks to Warsi, Babban is just charming enough that we believe Krishna could have feelings for him.

Writer-director Abhishek Chaubey does a superb job with his first movie. The story is small, and Chaubey, appropriately, doesn’t overreach. No big special effects, lavish dance numbers or distracting cameos. The attention stays focused on the three leads with straightforward camera work and a direct storytelling style.

Chaubey previously worked with director Vishal Bhardwaj on movies like Makdee, Omkara and Kaminey. The two worked together again on Ishqiya, which Bhardwaj produced and co-wrote. He also wrote the movie’s wonderful music.

In one scene, Krishna sings to herself while chopping vegetables. There’s no accompanying music, just a solo woman’s voice. The visuals and sound editing were so seamless that I was sure it really was Balan singing. Turns out it was the voice of Rekha Bhardwaj, Vishal’s wife.

The scene exemplifies all that’s great about Ishqiya. Chaubey pays close attention to small details, making the film immersive. And he’s willing to give time to such a simple scene that reveals so much about the characters. After such a terrific debut, I’m eager to see what Chaubey does next.

Note: I watched Ishqiya on a DVD produced by Shemaroo. A watermark of the company’s logo appeared in the bottom right corner of the screen throughout the whole movie. Eventually I was able to ignore it, but I found the practice annoying.

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