Lust Stories 2: How each segment of this Netflix anthology subverts its primary casting choice

Spoilers ahead for Lust Stories 2

During the promotions of Netflix India anthology Lust Stories 2, actors Tamannaah Bhatia and Vijay Varma and director Sujoy Ghosh said they agree with Neena Gupta’s grandmother character who compares testing sexual compatibility before marriage to a ‘test drive.’ “We’d do anything that Neena ji says,” they said.

(Also Read: Neena Gupta says her mother never told her about sex, periods)

They giggled immediately after saying so, possibly referring to Neena Gupta’s personal choices. From having her daughter Masaba Gupta with then-boyfriend Vivian Richards to raising her as a single mother, Neena has had a glorious lust story of her own. Which is why her casting, as a grandmother who advocates sexual compatibility in marriage, in R Balki’s segment is an inspired choice.

But I’d still argue that she’s actually cast against type. Not just her, but the lead actors of all other segments have been cast against type, which lends richly to the unpredictability and the between-the-lines reading of each narrative.

Neena Gupta without disclaimers

Neena Gupta has always issued disclaimers to those who’ve looked up to her as an example. She’s often cautioned against raising a child alone, cohabiting without the intention to get married, and rebelling against society every now and then. Even in her book Sach Kahun Toh, Neena has detailed years of struggle she had to endure because of her ‘bold’ choices.

It’s refreshing and liberating then to see her as a dadi dishing out gyan on sexual compatibility in Lust Stories 2. She speaks as if not just preaching, but also validating her own life choices. She also played a 52-year-old mother who turns pregnant in her breakthrough film Badhaai Do, and it was reassuring to see her never apologise for her choices. Her role in Lust Stories 2 seems like Badhaai Do’s dadi Surekha Sikri supporting her daughter-in-law’s choices.

Tillotama Shome plays bye to playing the bai

Tillotama made her debut with Mira Nair’s 2001 ensemble Monsoon Wedding, playing Alice, a house help who falls in love with another staff member, PK Dubey. Even though she was a supporting character, Tillotama said that Mira treated her at par with every other actor on set.

But when she returned to acting after a break, all she got were parts of maids, house helps and bais that didn’t match the presence of Alice. After 20 years of being pigeonholed as a house help, she broke out of the rut with Is Love Enough? Sir, a romantic film in which she plays a house help who falls for her employer. The sensitive romance allowed her agency and dignity of a lead character in the role of a domestic help.

And now, in Lust Stories 2, she plays the employer. Director Konkona Sensharma said it was important for her to not cast Tillotama as the househelp because the stereotyping has prevented her from displaying her versatility all along. But Amruta Subhash, who plays the house help, doesn’t get stereotyped in the film either. Both their characters seem at par with each other and engage in a friendly, competitive game of lustful one-upmanship.

Vijay Varma – the hunter becomes the hunted

Vijay Varma recently played two memorable grey characters, in Jasmeet K Reen’s dark comedy Darlings last year and Reema Kagti’s police procedural series Dahaad this year. While Vijay was a wife beater in the first one, he played a serial killer in the latter.

In Lust Stories 2, Sujoy Ghosh turns Vijay’s onscreen image on its head by casting him as a mix of both – a wife killer – but also showing how he ends up getting killed himself, thanks to his lust. Lust has been embedded with violence in both of Vijay’s recent memorable roles, so it was only apt to see his lust get the better of him in Lust Stories 2.

Gupt gone wrong

In Amit R Sharma’s segment, Kajol’s plays a middle-class Rajasthani homemaker and victim of domestic abuse and marital rape. She’s cast against type right there, since she’s mostly essayed urban characters. But it’s in the climax that Amit subverts her casting further.

The closing sequence shows how Kajol, a hapless homemaker so far, has been plotting her husband’s murder. A former sex worker, she hires a domestic help from her kotha who has an unnamed Sexually Transmitted Disease. She grooms her as well, ensuring that the new domestic help catches the attention of her lecherous husband.

Kajol’s evil smirk and the climactic twist may remind one of Rajiv Rai’s 1997 thriller Gupt, where the actor turned out to be the unexpected villain. Pardon the pun but she even uses a gupt rog as her weapon of choice here. However, there’s yet another twist when she realises it’s not her husband, but her son who ends up sleeping with the house help. Her last expression, of shock and pain, makes it amply clear that this film is Gupt gone wrong.

In Role Call, Devansh Sharma decodes inspired casting choices in films and shows.

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