Lust Stories 3 Review: ⭐⭐⭐☆☆ (3/5)
Lust Stories 3 is a bold, uneven, and mostly rewarding Netflix anthology that delivers at least three genuinely memorable short films out of four, with Konkona Sen Sharma and Farah Khan’s segments standing tall as some of the finest work this franchise has produced. If you have enjoyed the earlier instalments, this one absolutely earns its place in the series.
Rating: ⭐⭐⭐☆☆ (3/5)
Platform: Netflix
Directors: Konkona Sen Sharma, Farah Khan, Aditya Sarpotdar, Bhavesh Mandalia
Release: September 18, 2026
Language: Hindi
The Lust Stories franchise has always been about more than just desire. The first anthology gave us Radhika Apte talking to herself about a hookup that meant nothing and everything at the same time.
The second gave us Tamannaah Bhatia and a vibrator becoming the most talked-about forty minutes on Indian streaming.
What the series has consistently done well is use the short film format to say things about women, want, and modern relationships that mainstream Hindi cinema would never get around to saying in a two-and-a-half-hour feature.
Lust Stories 3 continues that tradition, though not always with equal success across all four segments. Some of it is genuinely daring. Some of it is frustratingly surface-level. And all of it is more interesting than most of what is currently sitting on your watchlist.
Before going further, if you are curious about the scale of this production and what the cast reportedly earned for their work, the detailed breakdown in the Lust Stories 3 Budget and Salary piece is genuinely eye-opening. The numbers say a lot about how seriously Netflix is investing in this franchise.
The anthology opens with Konkona Sen Sharma’s segment, and it immediately announces itself as the most emotionally complex of the four. A middle-aged woman navigating desire outside the boundaries her marriage has quietly set for her.
Konkona directs with the same quiet, observational intelligence she brings to her acting. Nothing is explained. Nothing is underlined. You are simply placed inside a situation and trusted to sit with it. The central performance is extraordinary, and the film does something genuinely difficult by making you feel both the rightness and the wrongness of a choice without telling you which one to settle on.
Farah Khan’s segment is the most fun. This is pure Farah territory, mixing comedy and longing with the ease of someone who has spent decades understanding what audiences enjoy. It is light, it is funny, and it lands its emotional gut punch right at the end when you least expect it. Of the four, this is the one most likely to make you watch something twice.
Aditya Sarpotdar’s contribution is the most visually ambitious. He works in a slightly stylised, heightened register that separates his segment from the more grounded textures of the others. It does not always work consistently, but when it does, the result is arresting. The central relationship at its core is written with genuine complexity.
Bhavesh Mandalia’s segment closes the anthology, and while it has strong performances anchoring it, this is the segment that feels most like a concept in search of a story. Ideas are raised and not quite pursued. You finish watching it wanting another ten minutes.
The anthology format will always carry this particular risk. When it works, it works beautifully. When it does not, you feel the gap between the segments quite sharply.
It is a different experience from something like the Stranger Things: Tales From ’85 Season 2, which builds a consistent world and tone across its entire runtime. Anthologies trade that consistency for variety, and the trade-off is always visible.
Lust Stories 3 is not a perfect anthology. It could not be. But three out of four segments being genuinely worth your time is a better average than most omnibus projects achieve, and the best of what is here reminds you why this franchise earns the attention it gets each time around.
Watch it for Konkona and Farah. Stay for everything else.
Lust Stories 3 is now streaming on Netflix.