Based on Aravind Adiga’s novel of the same name, Ben Rekhi’s Last Man In Tower is defined by its curious relationship with storytelling.
It starts out like a vintage Bombay movie with ‘characters’ and designs of a scrappy fairytale about the old guard holding down the brick fort in the face of rampant gentrification.
Retired teacher Yogesh Mishra (Manoj Bajpayee) is the fair and level-headed patriarch of this unofficial family; he tutors the kids and schools the adults.
When ruthless builder Dharmen Shah (Boman Irani) drives a wedge between the good folks of Vishram with promises of a luxurious tower and a redeveloped future, you expect the film to behave like a film.
There are patterns of an underdog story in the way the desperate residents try to manipulate the hesitant ones, in the way sides are switched, or in the way Yogesh draws up an elaborate plan of resistance.
Based on Aravind Adiga’s novel of the same name, Ben Rekhi’s Last Man In Tower is defined by its curious relationship with storytelling. It starts out like a vintage Bombay movie with ‘characters’ and designs of a scrappy fairytale about the old guard holding down the brick fort in the face of rampant gentrification. There’s a sense of community and colour. It’s 2010, the setting is a crumbling colony called Vishram (“Rest”) in Mumbai’s suburb of Vakola, and the residents are diverse: the touchy Punjabi lady with a neurodivergent son, the generous old Catholic couple, the fiery single mom accused of ‘communism,’ the mild-mannered building secretary, the lone Muslim family, the street-smart hustler, and the single working girl who becomes the subject of gossip for having a sex life. Retired teacher Yogesh Mishra (Manoj Bajpayee) is the fair and level-headed patriarch of this unofficial family; he tutors the kids and schools the adults.
When ruthless builder Dharmen Shah (Boman Irani) drives a wedge between the good folks of Vishram with promises of a luxurious tower and a redeveloped future, you expect the film to behave like a film. There are patterns of an underdog story in the way the desperate residents try to manipulate the hesitant ones, in the way sides are switched, or in the way Yogesh draws up an elaborate plan of resistance. There are shades of famous middle-class dramedies like Khosla Ka Ghosla (featuring Irani’s presence as the predatory builder), and Rocket Singh: Salesman of the Year in Dharmen’s arrogance hitting a wall in Yogesh’s spirit. You expect a strong pro-bono lawyer to change the game; you expect the references to a scrappy journalist to result in the feel-good plot twist; you even expect the slut-shamed young tenant to become the trump card of the team (social-media manager and all). That's how it usually goes. The stage is ripe for a come-from-behind victory of Vishram, like the isolated village of Asterix and his Gauls fending off the Romans for years with the power of humanity (and magic potion) alone.
