Tehran Movie review: John Abraham-starrer is crafted with intelligence

Film: Tehran
U/A: Action, thriller
On: Zee 5
Director: Arun Gopalan
Cast: John Abraham, Neeru Bajwa, Manushi Chhillar, Hadi Khanjanpour
Rating: 3/5

I don’t think films can — or should — be viewed devoid of their politics. That’s why it’s so rare to find an actioner that doesn’t surrender to an agenda and instead stays loyal to the story. Tehran is that rare film — engaging and smart — without the hollow pretence of neutrality or the cheap intention of inciting hatred. In a climate where most spy films have buried themselves in agenda-driven storytelling, watching one play it straight feels like a relief. The second respite is that it’s not made as an anti-Pakistan propaganda fare, fiven the state of affairs now!

Under its anti-terrorism cloak, the John Abraham-starrer focuses on the grind of espionage. This isn’t a hollow spy franchise, glossed with slick action, chases, and shootouts. Everything here is anchored in a plot that makes you care.

Director Arun Gopalan, along with writers Ashish P Verma, Bindni Karia, and Ritesh Shah, presents ACP Rajiv Kumar (Abraham), a solid officer with the Delhi Police’s Special Cell. When a car bomb tears through New Delhi in 2012, killing a young girl about the same age as his daughter — an Indian child with no connection to the long-running Israel-Iran hostility — Rajiv’s routine assignment becomes personal. Determined to stop terrorists from using India as their playground, he vows to “cut off their hands”. 

Branded a lunatic by his bosses, he teams up with R&AW officer Sheilaja (Neeru Bajwa), SI Divya (Manushi Chhillar), and Vijay (Dinker Sharma) for an unsanctioned mission to track down the perpetrators. He doesn’t have the blessings of his superiors — Neeraj (Alyy Khan) and R&AW chief Himadri (Qaushik Mukherjee) — as the mission jeopardises a high-stakes gas deal with Iran. Officially, the diplomats disown him; unofficially, Israel’s Mossad sees value in his work and offers covert help.

The film isn’t without rough edges. The plot occasionally stumbles under the weight of the many subplots it tries to pack in. Some of the violence is deeply unsettling — like the brutal murder of an elderly rabbi under a “Free Palestine” banner — directly linking Iranian militant Afshar Hosseini’s (Hadi Khanjanpour) politics to his violence.

Tehran is set in the political reality of 2012, but arrives now — at a time when the conflicts between Israel and Iran have escalated to war and genocide — giving the film an unnerving immediacy. Yet it muddies my response to its politics. With Israel positioned in the film as an almost sympathetic ally, it’s difficult to ignore the dissonance between its on-screen role and its real-world brutality. The film feels slightly unmoored from the moral weight of the present moment.

Still, as a piece of action cinema, Tehran delivers. It’s crafted with intelligence, features well-written strong characters, and allows its anti-terrorism stance to inform the story without letting the noise of present-day geopolitics dictate its course. Abraham is pitch-perfect. Khan and Mukherjee are both phenomenal. Among the women, Bajwa stands out, making me wonder why we don’t see more of her in Hindi films. Iranian actor Khanjanpour gives the most memorable performance of the lot.

I’m glad I gave Tehran a chance. Gopalan’s filmmaking is interesting, and I’ll be keeping an eye on what he does next. Experience it, take your own lessons from it, get enraged if you must, debate if you will, agree or disagree — but engage with it. The film pushes you to reflect on where you stand and whether your stand can truly hold up in the messy quagmire of geopolitics.