Lust Stories is back with its third instalment, and once again, desire, intimacy and complicated relationships take centre stage. Lust Stories 3 brings together four acclaimed filmmakers – Vikramaditya Motwane, Kiran Rao, Shakun Batra and Vishal Bhardwaj – along with an impressive ensemble featuring Konkona Sen Sharma, Radhika Apte, Vijay Varma, Abhishek Banerjee, Radhika Madan, Ali Fazal, Gurfateh Pirzada, Sana Thampi, Aditi Rao Hydari and Siddharth.
But beneath all the attraction and intimacy, these stories are also about something extremely familiar: marriages that have lost their spark, partners who struggle to communicate, desires left unspoken and people simply wanting to feel seen. Here are three things that make Lust Stories 3 worth adding to your Netflix watchlist.
Lust Stories 3 Review: 3 Reasons You Shouldn’t Miss This Netflix Anthology
1. Four Directors Bring Four Very Different Takes on Desire & Relationships
One of the biggest strengths of Lust Stories 3 is the filmmaking talent behind it. Vikramaditya Motwane, Kiran Rao, Shakun Batra and Vishal Bhardwaj take the same broad theme of desire and turn it into four very different relationship stories.
Motwane’s segment, featuring Konkona Sen Sharma, Radhika Apte, Vijay Varma and Abhishek Banerjee, looks at two marriages where emotional and physical dissatisfaction has begun to creep in. Kiran Rao takes desire into a more unpredictable space with Gurfateh Pirzada and Sana Thampi, while Shakun Batra explores a marriage in which love, anger, intimacy and the inability to communicate have become hopelessly entangled.
And then there is Vishal Bhardwaj, who brings his unmistakably dreamy touch to the story featuring Aditi Rao Hydari and Siddharth. Desire here becomes intertwined with imagination, romance and everything that remains unspoken between two people.
The anthology format works particularly well because you aren’t watching four filmmakers make the same point. Each story approaches intimacy through a different relationship and emotional conflict, making the journey from one segment to another interesting.
2. Aditi Rao Hydari & Siddharth’s Chemistry Is Definitely One of the Highlights
Of all the pairings in Lust Stories 3, Aditi Rao Hydari and Siddharth naturally arrive with the most curiosity around them. And their easy chemistry translates beautifully on screen.
Vishal Bhardwaj gives their story a romantic, playful and almost dreamlike quality. Aditi brings charm and mischief to Saira, while Siddharth gets to play a character quite different from what audiences may immediately associate with him. Together, they make attraction between the characters feel effortless rather than manufactured.
What makes the segment even more interesting is the reversal of the conventional gaze. Instead of the woman simply being presented as the object of attraction, Siddharth is frequently seen through Saira’s desire. It is playful, refreshing and fits neatly into a larger idea running through Lust Stories 3: women aren’t merely being desired—they get to desire too.
But the performances aren’t limited to this pairing. Konkona Sen Sharma is effortlessly compelling, Radhika Apte brings wonderful comic energy, and Radhika Madan and Ali Fazal bring intensity to a relationship where passion and frustration seem to exist side by side. With actors this good, even uncomfortable relationship conversations remain engaging.
3. It Isn’t Just About Lust – It’s About What We Don’t Say in Relationships
Perhaps the most interesting thing about Lust Stories 3 is that the title only tells you half the story. Sex and desire may provide the connecting thread, but underneath them are marriages, loneliness, insecurity, emotional neglect, communication and the need to feel wanted.
The women in these stories are also allowed to be complicated. They can be dissatisfied, attracted, impulsive, confused and curious. More importantly, they aren’t always waiting for somebody else to define what they want. They express desire, question their relationships and confront needs that have remained buried beneath the routines of everyday life.
That becomes particularly interesting when the stories turn their attention towards long-term relationships. What happens when love remains but communication disappears? Can physical intimacy compensate for emotional distance? And how much of what goes wrong between two people begins with everything they never manage to say?
These questions make Lust Stories 3 about considerably more than physical attraction. At its heart, the anthology explores our desire to be understood—emotionally as much as physically.
Lust Stories 3 Review: Should You Watch It?
Lust Stories 3 brings together an excellent cast, four distinctive filmmakers and four very different interpretations of desire and relationships. There is romance, humour, frustration, fantasy, attraction and plenty of emotional messiness along the way.
But what stays interesting is its willingness to let women desire, choose, question and sometimes simply do the looking. Add Aditi Rao Hydari and Siddharth’s charming chemistry, some terrific performances across the anthology and stories that look beyond physical intimacy to what couples really want from one another, and Lust Stories 3 makes for an engaging weekend watch.