‘Last Man In Tower’ movie review: Manoj Bajpayee elevates this timely portrait of middle-class desperation
The film 'Last Man in Tower', directed by Ben Rekhi and based on Aravind Adiga's novel, explores the moral decay of a Mumbai housing society facing redevelopment. Manoj Bajpayee stars as a retired teacher who resists pressure from neighbors and a developer to sell his home.
Why it matters
The film serves as a social commentary on the human cost of rapid urbanization and the erosion of community values in the face of financial greed.
At the heart of Last Man in Tower lies Vishram Cooperative Housing Society, a decaying, close-knit enclave of middle-class Mumbai families. Their world is upended when a ruthless real estate tycoon, Dharmen Shah (Boman Irani ), offers them a life-changing financial windfall to buy out the building for luxury redevelopment. The catch is that the payout is all or nothing, contingent on a unanimous vote. While his cash-strapped neighbours eagerly scramble for a ticket into the modern world, Yogesh Mishra ( Manoj Bajpayee ), a retired schoolteacher known as Masterji, stubbornly refuses to sign away the home that holds the memories of his deceased wife. What begins as a disagreement quickly degenerates into a psychological social pressure cooker, as the neighborhood’s collective desperation, led by the chirpy Sangeeta Puri (Divya Dutta), turns into targeted malice against the lone dissenter.
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