Mahak Gupta

Vivek is 17, and as every middle-class family in India would attest, it is high time he was enrolled in coaching classes for the notoriously competitive entrance exams of the Indian Institutes of Technology (IITs). Vivek’s father, who sees an IIT degree as a moral certificate, ships his only son off to a residential preparatory school in Kota, the Mecca for IIT coaching. Over two years, Vivek goes through the motions of Indian adolescence, but it is his parents who do the growing up.

Four eminent Indian directors explore sex, desire and love through short films in this sequel to 2018's Emmy-nominated 'Lust Stories'.

The story revolves around a teenager from a conservative family who struggles to strike a balance between societal expectations and personal desires. According to the popular adage, Achcham (Fear), Madam (Innocence), Naanam (Coyness), Payirppu (Chastity) are the four "ideal" qualities that every good Tamil girl must possess.

Pankaj is a small-town theatre actor with dreams of making it big in Mumbai. But faced with obligations to his family, which is under a deep financial strain post the lockdown, he is forced to weigh his dreams and make a choice.

Anaben Pawar is an elderly tribal woman accused of witchcraft in rural India. Through Ana's story, we delve into a deep-rooted culture of patriarchy and examine one of the most monstrous attacks on women's bodies in modern India: the witch-hunt.

Sangai, a teenage girl living with her father in a village of inland Bhutan, is not happy with her father, who makes wooden phalluses, believed to have mysterious power, and playing a festival clown with a red mask at a local festival. She reluctantly delivers the phalluses to neighbors but she is followed by dozens of men with red masks and costumes when walking through the hill. Conflict and tension grows between the father, who has concerns about his successor, and Sangai, who has a clandestine relationship with a married man.

An anthology of four stories that sheds light on modern relationships from the viewpoint of the Indian woman.