Film

Lust Stories 3

Lust Stories 3 brings back Netflix's starry Indian anthology for round three: four unconnected shorts, different directors, each chasing its own flavour of desire — funny, tender, messy, sad. Expect wildly varying tones and performances from a strong ensemble including Radhika Apte and Konkona Sen Sharma. It's a grab-bag evening, not a tidy story, and some segments will land far harder than others.

TMDb rating6.8

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Bombay Talkies2013

Made by the same directorial ensemble — Kashyap, Banerjee, Akhtar, Johar — celebrating a century of Indian cinema through four stories of love, ambition, and hidden sexuality. Same DNA, different century-sized occasion.

But Uneven quality across segments; a couple feel more like tributes to Bollywood itself than fully realised stories.

Bombay Talkies poster

Ghost Stories2020

The direct cousin of the Lust Stories franchise, same four directors turning their attention to horror instead of desire, but with the same restless, anthology energy and starry cast.

But It's horror, not romance — if you wanted more longing and less dread, the tonal swerve might disappoint.

Ghost Stories poster

Lipstick Under My Burkha2017no page yet

Four women in small-town India secretly pursue desires they're not supposed to have — a genuinely daring, occasionally furious film about repression that Indian censors tried to ban.

But Message-driven and heavy rather than erotic; it's angrier and less playful than the Lust Stories tone.

The wildcard

Something you would not have found on your own.

Boccaccio '701962no page yet

Lust Stories is essentially reinventing this format for streaming — Boccaccio '70 is where the omnibus-of-desire anthology started, sixty years and a continent removed.

Four segments by Fellini, Visconti, De Sica and Monicelli, each turning desire, hypocrisy and class into miniature morality plays — glamorous, biting, and gorgeously shot old-world cinema.

But Over three hours, in Italian with subtitles, and its sensibility about sex and marriage belongs unmistakably to another century.

More like this (7)

The Lunchbox2013no page yet

A quiet, aching romance built entirely on letters between strangers — the opposite of overt lust, but just as consumed by longing and the ache of connection.

But Slow and restrained; if you want heat or explicitness, this gives you almost none.

Paris Je T'aime2006

An international anthology of love stories set across Paris, made by a rotating cast of major directors — the format Lust Stories borrows, done on a global scale.

But Some segments are brilliant, others slight; the sheer number of vignettes means inconsistency is baked in.

Paris Je T'aime poster

New York, I Love You2008no page yet

Another anthology of urban love stories, this time in New York, with a starry international cast riffing on connection, longing, and chance encounters.

But Wildly uneven; a few segments are genuinely charming, others feel like leftover scraps.

Modern Love2019

The glossy American original this Mumbai spin-off borrows from — polished, star-studded episodes each built around a different true story of love from the NYT column.

But Safer and shinier than Lust Stories; it rarely takes the risks the Indian anthology is known for.

Modern Love poster

Wild Tales2014no page yet

An Argentine anthology of people pushed past their breaking point — same short-story structure, but swapped from desire into dark comedy and simmering rage.

But Not really about lust at all; it's a different genre wearing the same anthology shape.

A Suitable Girl2017no page yet

Same terrain as Lust Stories — repressed desire colliding with family duty — except here it's lived rather than dramatised, no script softening the ache.

A documentary following three young Indian women as they're steered toward arranged marriage — intimate, unguarded, and quietly devastating about what gets negotiated away.

But Slow and observational, with none of fiction's shape or erotic charge — just real lives under real pressure.

Jism2003no page yet

The same lust-drives-bad-decisions engine Lust Stories runs on, cranked into full pulp-noir register with none of the arthouse restraint.

A Bollywood neo-noir where a femme fatale seduces a lawyer into murder — unapologetically pulpy, stylish, and a genuine landmark for how boldly it treated on-screen desire in mainstream Hindi cinema.

But Melodramatic dialogue and thin plotting; what felt daring in 2003 can read as camp rather than sexy now.

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