Peruchazhi (English: Bandicota) is a 2014 Indian Malayalam-language political satire comedy film written and directed by Arun Vaidyanathan. The dialogues were co-written by Ajayan Venugopalan. Vijay Babu and Sandra Thomas produced the film for Friday Film House. It features Mohanlal in the lead role, and Baburaj, Aju Varghese, Ragini Nandwani, Mukesh, Vijay Babu, and Sean James Sutton appear in supporting roles. Arrora compsoed the background score and soundtrack, while Arvind Krishna and Vivek Harshan did the cinematography and editing.
Jagannathan (Mohanlal), an Indian politician is good at solving problems using his wit and unorthodox ideas. To get rid of him, fellow politician Francis Kunjappan (Mukesh) offers him a task he has never done before in the United States which could give him enough money to fulfill his dream of owning a sports academy. Jagannathan ends up being the chief political adviser for a struggling candidate, John Kory (Sean James Sutton), in the California governor's election campaign and uses tactics standard in Indian politics to help win the election.
Vaidyanathan got the story idea when he watched a political debate on television in the United States. He originally wrote the screenplay in Tamil and English. Ajayan Venugopalan translated it into Malayalam in 2013. The same year the film was announced, he converted it into a Malayali context. Principal photography began in mid-April 2014 in Kollam, Kerala. Set almost entirely in the United States, the majority of the film was shot in Burbank, California. Some parts were shot in Trivandrum and Kochi, where filming wrapped in July 2014.
Peruchazhi was released worldwide on 29 August 2014 on 500 screens, the widest release for a Malayalam film at the time. It was distributed in Kerala by Friday Tickets, and by Fox Star Studios in the rest of India. The film received mostly negative reviews from critics; most of them criticised the excessive references to earlier popular Mohanlal films, and its illogical narration. After a good opening, the film struggled at the box office in the following weeks. The film was released on DVD on 22 December 2014.
Directed by - Arun Vaidyanathan
Produced by - Vijay Babu, Sandra Thomas
Written by - Arun Vaidyanathan, Ajayan Venugopalan (dialogues)
Starring - Mohanlal , Aju Varghese, Baburaj, Ragini Nandwani
Mukesh, Vijay Babu, Sean James Sutton
Music by - Arrora