Last Man In Tower Review: Unsettling Must Watch

Last Man In Tower is an unsettling portrait of a society that can turn against one another when greed dangles the promise of a better life, observes Sreeju Sudhakaran.

IMAGE: Manoj Bajpayee in Last Man In Tower.

Last Man In Tower is the second movie adaptation of Aravind Adiga’s acclaimed work. Interestingly, both adaptations of his books have been directed by filmmakers with international ties.

Following Iranian filmmaker Ramin Bahrani’s highly impressive take on The White Tiger, it is now time for Ben Rekhi, an American filmmaker of Indian origin, to tackle Last Man In Tower.

On paper, Rekhi arguably faced a slightly easier challenge. The novel follows a far more conventional narrative style than Adiga’s Booker Prize-winning 2008 debut, The White Tiger, which had its protagonist unspooling his life story through a series of letters.

If that first novel took sharp, biting digs at class division, rampant corruption and the fractured effects of globalisation on Indian society, Last Man In Tower zeroes in on how quickly people can turn against each other when basic greed and self-interest take the wheel, easily blinded by a dangling short-term carrot.

 

Greed And Betrayal

The protagonist of Last Man In Tower, Yogesh Murthy, becomes Vijay Mishra (Manoj Bajpayee) in the film adaptation. But both share the same nickname: ‘Masterji’. He is affectionately called this by the middle-class residents of his building complex, Vishram Society.

A widower living alone, the former headmaster is deeply loved and respected by everyone in the apartment block. He holds tuition classes for the local kids and happily steps in to watch over the autistic son of his neighbour, Mrs Puri (Divya Dutta), whenever she is busy.

Vijay has a son, Gaurav (Sukant Goel), who lives separately with his family and harbours resentment towards his father. Yet, the old man still faithfully visits to spend time with his grandson.

Vishram Society projects an outward picture of residents living in peace and harmony, but you can immediately spot the ugly biases lurking underneath. For instance, Mrs Puri and the building secretary, Mr Kothari (Harish Khanna), constantly look down on the single female tenant living on Masterji’s floor, even stooping so low as to dig through her rubbish to find condoms.

These exact biases and hidden weaknesses are exploited by Dharmen Shah (Boman Irani), a prominent builder who desperately wants to take over Vishram Society for redevelopment, aiming to construct a mega-complex on the prime land.

While most of the inmates are immediately enticed by the massive cash offer, Masterji and a couple of other elderly residents remain entirely un-enamoured. They are troubled about losing the quiet, harmonious existence they once cherished. For Masterji, it is also about losing a flat packed tightly with the precious memories of his dead wife.

The wealthy builder manipulates the rest of the residents, particularly Mrs Puri, Mr Kothari and Mr Ajwani (Chandan Roy Sanyal), an opportunistic land broker. He pushes them to bully the unconvinced residents into folding before a hard deadline; otherwise, the entire lucrative deal collapses. When simple persuasion fails, genuine threats are rapidly deployed.

One by one, everyone folds under the pressure. Except for Masterji, who remains fiercely adamant about keeping his flat, thus becoming the ultimate ‘Last Man in Tower’.

Nihilism That Feels Dangerously Real

I read Last Man In Tower when the novel originally came out in 2011, and admit I was not completely blown away. Not because the novel wasn’t good enough. I simply could not fully buy into its nihilism, particularly regarding its bleak ending.

Yes, I was naïve back then. I was not convinced that everyday people could so easily turn their backs on those they once genuinely loved and cared about. Or rather, I chose not to believe that.

It took a couple more years of living in the real world and the changing times for me to realise exactly how silly I was. I soon saw how terrifyingly relevant the story of Last Man In Tower truly felt: An ugly reflection of a society perfectly willing to attack its own on the flimsy promise of huge short-term gains. Not even the actual delivery, just the mere promise.

With that stark realisation firmly in mind, I could now connect more with what the movie wants to say about us as a society. We keep living desperately on the empty promise of a better tomorrow, willing to fiercely hate, or even kill, anyone we are told is standing in the way of that ‘tomorrow’ dawning. They become mere puppets for the powerful and the rich who gain more power and riches.

As Boman Irani’s character tells his acolyte, human greed has to be respected; it is the engine driving society. Whether it is Mrs Puri’s blind, desperate belief that cash can somehow buy her son a better future, or Mr Shah himself, whose toxic profession is slowly poisoning him (literally), the sheer greed for more money (and for Shah, the desire to conquer the prime of Mumbai) still relentlessly drive them forward.

Sooni Taraporevala’s screenplay does a fine job of distilling the core essence of the novel into a highly taut 94-minute runtime. There is an authentic, lived-in sense to how Ben Rekhi and Taraporevala meticulously create the dynamics of the building’s residents, capturing the sheer brittleness of an ecosystem that just needed one sharp poke to shatter.

The screenplay also smartly imbibes some of the pitch-black humour of the original novel, particularly in how Mrs Puri and Mr Ajwani go about trying to convince the stubborn dissenters. But as their frustrations rapidly get the better of them, the movie grows significantly darker. They find increasingly sinister ways to force Masterji to toe the line, culminating in a shocking ending that will rattle anyone who hasn’t read the book.

I personally felt the book offered a slightly better, more nuanced epilogue compared to what was shown in the film, which did not feel quite as punishing. But hey, that is just my thought.

Impressive Performances

Where Last Man In Tower truly shines brightest is in the depiction of its two main characters. First, of course, is Masterji. He is a man who has actively avoided serious confrontations his entire life. But now, firmly rooted in his stubborn rebellion, he has finally found his true calling.

The character becomes the physical representation of the pain experienced by the morally righteous minority, who actively choose to stand against a majoritarian wrong. The sheer anguish is reflective, and his fierce obstinacy is so intense that after a certain point, even you secretly want Masterji to just fold, purely for his own safety.

The character is masterfully played by Manoj Bajpayee. It is mesmerising to witness the sheer restraint he brings to the role. He is effortlessly likeable as the gentle, soft-spoken Masterji, making his sudden, angry outbursts (like when he discovers the residents have forged his signature) hit with cold impact.

Even more impressively is his depiction of the psychological isolation of an elderly man slowly realising he is losing all support, getting ostracised by the very people who once called him a friend.

The second crucial character is Mrs Puri. Watching her devolution from a charming, gossipy next-door aunty into an almost completely remorseless sociopath was genuinely chilling. She even gets a classic ‘villain’ moment when, immediately after fabricating a fake tale to besmirch her old neighbour, she coldly watches him staring at her while casually munching on peas.

Divya Dutta is absolutely fantastic in the role, particularly shining in that restaurant sequence where she explains to Shah exactly why she needs the money.

Boman Irani brings a certain, welcome humane complexity to the hoggish nature of the rich builder role.

Chandan Roy Sanyal is appropriately smarmy as the devious neighbour. Sukant Goel impresses in his tense scenes with Manoj Bajpayee, though the movie definitely could have explored his resentment towards his father a bit more thoroughly.

Last Man In Tower works because it understands that its most frightening villains are not monsters, but ordinary people blinded by greed and the promise of a better life and in selling how their greed can be dangerously weaponised.

Ben Rekhi and his cast turn that uncomfortable idea into a taut, unsettling watch, with Manoj Bajpayee and Divya Dutta making the biggest impact.

Last Man In Tower Review Rediff Rating: