Adapted from Booker Prize winner Aravind Adiga’s acclaimed 2011 novel, Last Man in Tower tells a story of change. It maps a changing city through the changing hearts of its residents. At the centre of the narrative is Masterji, a retired schoolteacher played by Manoj Bajpayee, who lives in a peaceful cooperative housing society in Mumbai. The building is more than a roof over his head—it holds his memories, routines and relationships. A builder, polite but persistent, and played with measured cunning by Boman Irani, wants to buy every apartment and redevelop the property.
As Masterji becomes the lone holdout, trying to persuade his neighbours to resist the offer, the film morphs into something layered and complex: a tense drama about how greed and necessity can alter human relationship.
“Storytelling is universal, but culture is specific,” says director Ben Rekhi. “I spent months researching, going into housing societies, spending time with the residents, talking to builders, both big and small, and especially talking to my cast and crew to help fill in any gaps.”
Authenticity became a priority for the filmmaker, who is of Indian descent and lives in LA. “When there were specific things I needed to know or learn, I was not afraid to ask. If I am to tell a story with such cultural specificity, I have to believe everything and everyone I put in front of the camera. So that belief only comes from rigorous research and time spent in the world.”
The film’s central housing society is presented as a microcosm—of a community, city, perhaps even a nation. As the threat (and promise) of redevelopment looms, old equations begin to fracture. Last Man in Tower captures a pivotal moment in Bombay’s transformation, its rapid makeover presented not as a mechanical urban phenomenon but as something that enters people’s homes and rearranges their lives. Rekhi says he responded strongly to the moral complexities embedded in the story.
“In the story the thing that struck me the most was how morally complex all the characters are crafted. There’s no clear heroes or villains. No one is fully right or wrong, so what happened when those rights clash with each other? It’s really a microcosm of our larger world, how where sacrificing our sense of community for our own individualistic needs,” the filmmaker observed.
Music plays a key role in Last Man in Tower. From quieter passages to tense moments, the score maps the shifting atmosphere of Vishram Society. Ace composer Govind Vasantha supplies a moody, layered soundscape that complements the film’s delicate themes.
Manoj Bajpayee turns in a moving, watchful performance as Masterji, tempering the character’s stubbornness with warmth and vulnerability. The actor does not portray a conventional hero, or any hero; instead, his loneliness, and his growing distance from the people around him, accumulate slowly and revealingly. Likewise, Divya Dutta lends complexity and grit to Mrs Puri, whose circumstances pull her in a different direction. It’s these palpable human tensions that drive the drama of Last Man in Tower, a film that notices how people occupy spaces, depend on one another and, just as quickly, drift apart.