By Suhail Abbas
The film Tehran, directed by Arun Gopalan and starring John Abraham in the lead role, unsuccessfully attempts to blend espionage, political intrigue, and moral dilemma into a fast-paced crime thriller.
Set against the backdrop of the Israeli regime’s assassinations of Iranian nuclear scientists in Tehran, the film quickly switches to the February 13, 2012, bomb attack on an Israeli embassy vehicle in New Delhi.
The explosion, triggered by a magnetic bomb, took place in one of Delhi’s highly protected zones, less than a mile from the prime minister’s residence, and eerily mirrored the targeted killings of Iranian nuclear scientists in Tehran.
Just a month before the blast in Delhi, Mostafa Ahmadi-Roshan, a young Iranian nuclear scientist, was killed when a motorcyclist pulled up beside his car and planted a sticky bomb. It marked the sixth such assassination in just five years.
Mossad operatives seized the opportunity to stage a false-flag operation targeting an Israeli embassy vehicle in New Delhi. Timed perfectly with similar incidents in Thailand and Georgia, the attack was choreographed not only to cast Iran as the aggressor in retaliation for Roshan’s killing, but also to derail India-Iran diplomatic ties.
“Iran is the biggest exporter of terror in the world,” Benjamin Netanyahu told members of his right-wing Likud party following the Delhi bombing, which notably resulted in no Israeli casualties.
The attack was carefully designed not to injure the embassy staffer, but to stir up geopolitical tensions. But the story began to fall apart when Indian intelligence started peeling back the layers, revealing a far more intricate and unsettling plot than what appeared at first.
The film touches — albeit vaguely — on New Delhi’s decision not to pursue the case. But, contrary to the claim of a gas deal influencing the outcome, the real reason was the understanding that the situation was far more complex than it initially appeared.
From this juncture, the story pivots to follow an Indian security officer drawn into a labyrinth of international espionage. He covertly collaborates with Mossad in a personal quest to “avenge” the death of a young Indian flower-seller girl.
In order to influence the minds of viewers, the film claims that Indian authorities, wary of jeopardizing vital energy contracts with Iran, choose to quietly shelve the case when suspicions arise about Iranian involvement.
The protagonist, Abraham, refuses to heed the warning and works alongside Mossad agents. His journey takes him from New Delhi to Abu Dhabi and eventually to Tehran, where, with Mossad’s support, he approaches the so-called “masterminds” behind the Delhi bombing.
While the film portrays the central antagonist as an Iranian man allegedly linked with the Islamic Revolution Guards Corps (IRGC), the film forcefully pushes the idea that the attack was Iran’s retaliation for the assassination of its nuclear scientists by the Tel Aviv regime.
Though the film refrains from formally pinning the responsibility on the Iranian government, the implication is unmistakable: Iran and its “proxies” were behind the attack.
That’s precisely the issue here. It pushes a narrative that is both misleading and politically motivated and has already been discredited due to a lack of evidence.
From the outset, Israel accused Iran and the Lebanese Hezbollah resistance movement of orchestrating the Delhi bombing, since it also coincided with the assassination anniversary of Hezbollah’s famed military chief Imad Moghniyeh by the Israeli regime in Syria.
Tehran and the resistance axis strongly denied involvement, pointing instead to Israel’s own record of covert operations and psychological warfare, which is no secret. Indian investigators themselves expressed doubt, with no suspects and evidence linking it to Iran.
One of the most telling examples of political manipulation was the arrest of Indian journalist Syed Mohammad Kazmi. A longtime resident of New Delhi and correspondent for an Iranian news outlet, Kazmi was arrested and accused of aiding the 2012 bombing.
He spent months behind bars, only to be released due to a lack of evidence. His ordeal became a symbol of how truth becomes a casualty when geopolitics takes center stage and how journalists can be falsely branded as terrorists to serve an Israeli narrative.
Yet the film makes no mention of Kazmi, which speaks volumes. By ignoring such a high-profile case, one that made international headlines, it reveals a selective and biased framing of events.
The film’s characters and storyline reflect an equally troubling trend: Mossad’s quiet infiltration into Bollywood storytelling and influencing the way history is narrated.
The protagonist, an Indian intelligence officer who defies his own government to collaborate with Mossad, embodies a simplistic moral binary, where justice is synonymous with Israel, and Iran is cast as the shadowy villain.
His use of a fake Pakistani passport, his secret journey through Azerbaijan, and his disregard for the country’s orders are portrayed as heroic. But beneath the surface, these actions raise serious questions about legality, loyalty, and the glorification of rogue behavior.
The antagonist is depicted as a psychologically unstable Iranian man driven by vengeance. This half-hearted attempt to distance the Iranian government or the IRGC from the attack does little to conceal the film’s underlying message: that Iran, directly or through proxies, is to blame.
Perhaps recognizing its controversial undertones, Tehran was never released in Indian theaters and instead quietly dropped onto streaming platforms. Its muted tone and lack of overt anti-Iranian rhetoric may explain the absence of official backlash. Still, by reinforcing a discredited narrative about Iran’s alleged role in the 2012 New Delhi bombing, the film engages in a subtle yet dangerous rewriting of history—one that trades complexity for convenience, and truth for political fiction.
Though the film claims to be ‘based on real events,’ its lackluster performances fall flat, and more bizarrely, it distorts the historical and verified facts related to the incident.
By presenting Israel’s narrative of the New Delhi attack as fact, while ignoring counter-evidence and wrongful accusations like those against Kazmi, the film unfairly maligns Iran and oversimplifies a complex case that was scripted in Tel Aviv.
For viewers seeking entertainment, it offers a boring thriller. For those concerned with truth and fairness, Tehran is deeply problematic, a work of fiction masquerading as history.
Suhail Abbas is a New Delhi-based writer specializing in cinema and culture.
(The views expressed in this article do not necessarily reflect those of Press TV.)