Netflix’s Lust Story 2: Konkona Sen Sharma’s The Mirror stands out and how

Netflix’s Lust Story 2 talks not just about sex, but it also focuses on power play, casteism, misogyny and most importantly the single working woman life shown in Konkona Sen Sharma’s The Mirror. Tillotama Shome and Amruta Subhash’s brilliant performance makes it the best of all the anthologies.

The Mirror not only lays emphasis on sex, but highlights the most important element in our life. We often forget our house helps who are the main enablers in our career and often the ones responsible for maintaining peace in our homes. They are the ones responsible for the entire functioning of our house starting from our bed to tea, to the food that goes into our system to coming back home to a clean tip top home and most importantly a properly made bed. Undeniably, our domestic helps are our life lines.

Talking about coming back to a clean bed after a hard day at work, this is where the story begins. Directed by Konkona Sen Sharma, an actor-director who knows her craft well and as I always admired her choice of roles. She is gifted like her mother, Aparna Sen.  Konkona made the brilliant Death In The Gunj, her anthology The Mirror starts with Isheeta (played by the inimitable Tillotama Shome) coming back home early from work because of a splitting migraine attack to take some rest. And what does she discover, her help on her bed who is being humped by a man. Isheeta (Tillotama Shome) doesn’t know how to react to this and she runs out of the house and waits for the man to leave. She is unable to confront her house help, but the sex scene on her bed plays at the back of her mind. She gets irritated and realises how she is missing out on the pleasures of sex.

Isheeta (Tillotama Shome) is a single working woman who has it all when it comes to materialistic pleasures, but she is definitely sex starved and like all women she has desires and sexual fantasies too. She doesn’t confront her or fire her. She rather gets used to coming home silently like a rat in the noon from work to watch her maid and her husband make love on bed and again leaves for work. And that becomes a habit. Seeing them make love every day, she silently sits at the entrance of her apartment and touches her own private parts to get aroused. When she is alone in her house we see her master baiting again to fulfill her sexual desires. The film is totally through a woman’s gaze and her choices of fulfilling her sexual urges. What I like most about Konkana’s direction is there is no unnecessary nudity or the vulgarity of sex. The film explores sexual desires in a sensitive manner and it was made possible because of a woman team lead by Konkona’s direction and Tillotama and Amruta Subhash’s flawless performance.

Coming to Tillotama’s performance and why I feel or I would rather put it as I always felt that she is an actress who deserves more. She is one of the brilliant actors in the entertainment industry who had to wait for a long time to prove herself. I always felt she had the potential and she can do so much better than many actresses in the industry whether it is her performance for Monsoon Wedding then came Sir and Delhi Crime followed by Tooth Pari to Night Manager and now Lust Stories 2, she knows how to get into the skin of the character. She is one of those craftsmen who play any role from any strata of the society. Her expressions, her mannerism and her craft is just effortlessly perfect.

The Mirror handles the caste and class divide, space constraints and female desires with sensitivity by staying away from the distasteful skin show and that’s what makes it special. Truly female desires in Indian cinema has evolved and Mirror of Lust Stories 2 depicted that well.

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