Film

Lust Stories

Name: Lust Stories
Genre: Romance, Drama
Released: 2018
Cast: Kiara Advani, Radhika Apte, Akash Thosar, Randeep Jha, Bhumi Pednekar

Lust Stories bundles four Bollywood-adjacent shorts, each from a different director, each circling desire, marriage and the lies Indian women tell to survive both. It swings wildly in tone — comic in one segment, quietly devastating in the next — and treats female want as something worth filming honestly, which is rarer in mainstream Hindi cinema than it should be. Good for anyone curious what happens when big Bollywood names get fifteen minutes and no censor board looking over their shoulder.

TMDb rating

6.3

If you liked this

Ajeeb Daastaans2021no page yet

The true sibling piece — another Netflix India anthology, four directors, four stories of caste, class and repressed want, several of them sharper and nastier than anything in Lust Stories.

But One segment sags badly, and anthologies always leave you loving half and shrugging at the rest.

Lust Stories 22023no page yet

The direct sequel — same premise, new set of directors, still poking at desire and hypocrisy across Indian relationships with a bit more polish.

But Feels like a victory lap rather than a fresh idea; the novelty of the first one is gone.

Made in Heaven2019no page yet

Zoya Akhtar's series follows Delhi wedding planners and gives the same themes — class, desire, the performance of respectability — ten hours to breathe instead of twenty minutes.

But It's a proper series commitment, glossier and soapier than the film's rawer, quicker jabs.

The wildcard

Something you would not have found on your own.

A Suitable Girl2017no page yet

It's the nonfiction mirror of the film's central question — what a woman wants versus what she's told to want — stripped of drama and dialogue, just watching it actually happen.

A documentary following real Indian women as they're pushed toward arranged marriage, watching the exact tension Lust Stories dramatizes play out with no script and no neat ending.

But Slow, observational, and offers none of the fiction's cathartic release — real life just keeps going.

Modern Love Mumbai2022no page yet

Another anthology set in the same city, gentler and more hopeful, good if you want the format without quite so much bite.

But Sanded down and sentimental where Lust Stories is sharp; little of the same danger or anger.

Bombay Talkies2013

An earlier four-director Hindi anthology celebrating a century of Indian cinema through stories of longing and secret selves — the format's ancestor.

But Softer and more sentimental, and a couple of the segments have aged awkwardly.

Lipstick Under My Burkha2017no page yet

Four small-town women pursue secret desires against a suffocating patriarchy — same subject as Lust Stories with more room to build each story properly.

But Slower and less starry, with a grimmer, more claustrophobic atmosphere throughout.

Parched2015no page yet

Rural Rajasthani women reclaim desire and agency against brutal patriarchal custom — unflinching where Lust Stories is glancing.

But Distressing in places and entirely without the film's lighter, comic segments to break the tension.

Angry Indian Goddesses2015no page yet

An ensemble of women friends confronting desire, trauma and freedom over one long weekend, with the same tonal whiplash between comedy and gut-punch.

But The tonal shifts are less controlled and the ending tips into melodrama the earlier scenes don't earn.

Bhumika1977no page yet

Same feminist question Lust Stories asks — can a woman want things and still be respectable — posed decades earlier, proving this conversation is much older than it looks.

Shyam Benegal's portrait of an actress cycling through lovers and identities while chasing something like selfhood, made forty years before Bollywood was supposedly brave enough to try this.

But Black-and-white, deliberately paced 1970s arthouse cinema — a real tonal and formal jump from a Netflix anthology.

Wild Tales2014no page yet

Structurally identical to Lust Stories — different directors, short bursts, one social taboo per story — just swap suppressed lust for suppressed fury and see what the same format does with a different impulse.

An Argentine anthology of six stories about ordinary people finally snapping under social pressure — same interlocking-shorts engine, but fuelled by rage and absurdity instead of desire.

But Violent, farcical, and has zero romance in it — a real tonal detour if you came for relationship drama.