Sagar (Irrfan Khan), an ambitious musician rents a quaint cottage while awaiting his acceptance letter to a prestigious music academy in the States. During his sojourn, he is visited by former lover Manvi (Vidya Balan), as well as by another surprising visitor — the least tenant of his living quarters, the spirit of a young woman named Maria who was equally unlucky in love.
Filmed two decades ago by then debutante filmmaker Sarthak Dasgupta, “The Last Tenant” only just received a new lease of life after being released online. Serving as a posthumous release for its lead and one of India’s finest actors Irrfan Khan, the 45-minute-long film unearths fond memories that have since grown painful. As they say, art imitates life, and the movie unfolds as a compassionate fable on grief enveloping an individual, misfortune, struggles to cope with an abrupt separation from one’s betrothed, closure or clarity post a breakup and moving on rather than suffering in silent solitude. DasGupta executes its core concept and themes with magical realism simultaneously staying grounded. The result is a moving chamber piece full of heart, melancholic yet occasionally humorous and altogether a wholesome watch.
Parallels on Life and Love
“The Last Tenant” is also driven by plenty of parallels drawn between both Sagar and his ghostly companion having lived and loved but also lost and lamented. It also hinges on their mutual affinity for playing the violin. In a memorable scene, Sagar strikes up a conversation with his only listener, the omnipresent Maria, about driving away a lover and shares an anecdote about an audience member leaving his concert midway. This is just like the friendly ghost who has chased away countless previous residents of the cottage. This exchange especially offers insight into Sagar, who deals with troubling abandonment issues. Other scenes also stick. The duo play an innocent prank on the local postman. And Sagar initiates the first meeting by playing a melody on his violin in the hopes that Maria will join him in a duet elevate this tender musical short. It offers respite from its protagonist’s morose inner monologues.
A conversation between Manvi and Sagar during a flashback sequence — about needing a godfather to break into the music industry — has especially aged eerily well. It also feels meta due to the current debate on nepotism and the rise of one-note star kids in Bollywood, almost predicting this very scenario. It particularly stood out to me as both Irrfan and co-star Balan were once strugglers who found their footing sans family connections in the film industry too. This discourse on hierarchy in the industry eventually segues into a central motivation behind the lovers drifting apart. As Sagar puts it: “In the process of finding a godfather, one forgets god, one’s own father and even themselves,” resulting in a loved one reduced to a distant memory or turning into ‘the other,’ akin to a ghost fading away.
Irrfan Khan Excels
As usual, Irrfan tugs at the heart strings. He excels with his performance as the embittered and wistful Sagar, who has closed his heart off but can’t ignore the past whenever it runs into him even at the recording studio. The movie is also a timely reminder that the late actor shared great chemistry even with invisible entities, and of course, with the fresh-faced and versatile Vidya Balan. Seeing this pair for the first but sadly only time felt like a bonus while watching the movie. My only grievance with Irrfan ‘s performance is that his finger work during the scenes of Sagar playing the violin felt terribly reminiscent to Alfred Molina unconvincingly pretending to tickle the ivories in the queer romance “Love is Strange.” The actor’s body language and stance as he plays the instrument is off and the bowing technique just doesn’t sync with the music. However, this is but a nitpick and doesn’t distract as the movie progresses.
While its poor print quality and the score at intervals made me feel like I was watching a TV special or an episode of the old horror show “Aahat,” I will overlook these minor flaws due to Dasgupta’s travails in finding, digitising, restoring, and uploading the footage from a VHS tape (apparently this is the only surviving copy too). The final cut is ultimately a labour of love, and it shows.
The Power of the Universe
Like the main character, I too will lie in the hopes that the soothing instrumental tune played on a weeping violin that accompanies Sagar’s final departure and which reduced me to tears, will somehow make its way to Spotify.
As I sat mopping up my tears long after the credits rolled, I contemplated whether the universe had overheard me bemoaning Irrfan’s untimely demise (for the umpteenth time) while I was rewatching “Life in A Metro.” This long-lost gem surfacing was a final gift and a comfort of sorts. As absurd as it sounds, watching “The Last Tenant” converted me into a staunch believer in the power of the universe, and that those whom we admire or yearn for discover a way to stay with us, in memories and in spirit.
*”The Last Tenant” is available on YouTube.
