Directed by Ben Rekhi, Last Man in Tower is a perfectly pleasant adaptation of Aravind Adiga’s novel of the same name. But therein lies the problem; it is well-behaved when it should have been transgressive. At its core, this is a cautionary tale about the decaying morality of the Indian middle class, a satire about our collective lack of social trust. But filtered through Rekhi’s lens, the movie comes across as an ode to the undying spirit of Mumbaikars.
The story revolves around a decrepit residential building in Vakola, Mumbai, an almost fantastical vessel where men and women of all ages, sexes, and social classes live in relative harmony. The building can be seen as a metaphor for India; a society we imagine existed before it was shredded to pieces by populist politicians. At its (moral) centre is a retired teacher affectionately known by everyone as ‘Masterji’. He’s played by Manoj Bajpayee in a terrific central performance that occasionally reveals the underlying rage that should have been more palpable in the film itself.
Man against materialism
When a scheming builder named Shah, played with admirable restraint by Boman Irani, approaches the residents of the building with an offer they cannot logically refuse, Masterji puts his foot down. Shah promises the residents double the market price for their flats; after buying the building, he intends to erect a high-rise that’s curiously named Shanghai. The building is long overdue for a repair anyway, the audience is told, and this offer couldn’t have come at a better time for its residents. They each have their reasons to accept the deal; some want to secure their children’s future, while others simply want a better life for themselves. But Masterji clings to the old building, while many such have been destroyed in a similar wave of gentrification.
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He refuses to sign the deal, citing emotional reasons. This was his dream house; the house he raised his son Gaurav in; the house in which his late wife breathed her last. His neighbours — a colourful group that includes a loud Punjabi housewife played by Divya Dutta, an elderly Catholic couple played by Madhuri Bhatia and Uday Chandra, and a scheming real estate dealer played by Chandan Roy Sanyal — all just want him to sign the papers and allow them to climb the social ladder that they’ve never been given access to. But Masterji scoffs at the idea of materialism and mocks them for being tempted by greed.
The villain of the film is an industrialist who is swiftly able to sway the building’s administrator with little effort. The others fall like dominoes not long after. Last Man in Tower works best as a character study of a defeated man, even if it underlines its subtext with a neon marker. Bajpayee balances Masterji’s idealism and irrationality as only he can; it’s rather hit-or-miss with him these days, and his performances frequently depend less on the director he’s working with and more on his own interpretation of the material.
Fortunately for us, he appears to have cracked Masterji as a character, and his performance serves as a great companion piece to Pankaj Kapur’s work in Ek Doctor Ki Maut (1990).
When friends turn foes
But the film’s tone is all over the place. It flutters somewhere between Bajpayee’s own Gulmohar (2023) and director Anusha Rizvi’s The Great Shamsuddin Family (2025), when it isn’t making unprompted detours into Baghban (2003) territory. The scenes in which Masterji is treated like trash by his grown son are painfully melodramatic, when the more courageous creative move on the film’s part would have been to pit the idea of blood relationships and found family against each other, and raise an eyebrow while facing the audience head-on.
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As Shah’s pressure mounts on the residents of the building, Masterji finds himself becoming a pariah of sorts. He turns to the police, the legal system, and finally, a former student who now works as a prominent editor at a newspaper. They advise him to take the money, but Masterji views this as a betrayal. After a point, he treats anybody who isn’t on his side as an enemy and friendships begin showing bigger fractures than the walls they were fostered within.
Last Man in Tower is a fine showcase for Bajpayee’s talents, but it pales in comparison to the far more accomplished Adiga adaptation, The White Tiger (2021).