Last Man in Tower

The screenplay does deliver a sobering truth. The traditional hero is obsolete, and no singular villain exists to fight. The antagonist is the collective desperation of the middle class.

A brilliant Manoj Bajpayee and Divya Dutta anchor this dry, caustic narrative about middle-class morality and Mumbai housing crisis that works for most parts.

The adaptation risks being overly polite and sedate to the point of unevocative. The level-headed competence also renders it antithetical to stylistic risk.

Ultimately, Last Man in Tower is less about a building than about what happens when property acquires a monetary value greater than the relationships built around it. For an older generation, a flat can be a repository of an entire life.

The movie version is crisp and efficient, if somewhat perfunctory. At 95 minutes, Last Man in Tower covers a great deal of ground quite rapidly.

Manoj Bajpayee, meanwhile, is simply a masterclass. Yogesh is an older man, but Bajpayee never merely "plays old". The slight quiver, slower movements and changed body language around his son feel startlingly real.

Last Man In Tower works because it understands that its most frightening villains are not monsters, but ordinary people blinded by greed and the promise of a better life.