Anupama Chopra reviews Last Man in Tower, directed by Ben Rekhi and adapted by Sooni Taraporevala from Aravind Adiga's novel, for The Hollywood Reporter India. Boman Irani plays Dharmen Shah, a builder who could pass for the sleeker cousin of the property dealer he played in Khosla Ka Ghosla two decades ago, now chasing a vertical legacy across Mumbai.
His unlikely nemesis is Masterji, an aged, widowed teacher played by Manoj Bajpayee, who becomes the last hold-out in a Vakola society Dharmen wants to redevelop, and who understands that the price being put on the residents' zameen is really a price on their zameer.
Anupama finds Manoj brings the right mix of fragility and tenacity to Masterji, though the role plays like a milder version of his turn in Bhonsle, while Divya Dutta, as a resident torn between glee-eyed greed and the frustrations of care-giving, is terrific and gives the film its pulse. Beyond those two, the residents of Vishram Society feel like types rather than people, the subplots around Masterji's son and his own motives are underdeveloped, and the tone swerves between realism and stylised dread without consistently landing.
Timely as Mumbai's redevelopment mania is, Anupama feels the film never captures the city's textures the way Dhobi Ghat, The Lunchbox or All We Imagine as Light did. The THR Bottomline: sturdy storytelling that offers no new insight into how cities and lives are being reshaped by unapologetic avarice. Last Man in Tower is now in theatres.
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