Aruvi

Story:

Arun Prabu Purushothaman wrote and directed the 2017 Indian Tamil-language political drama film Aruvi, marking his directorial debut. Dream Warrior Pictures’ S. R. Prakash Babu and S. R. Prabhu are the producers and distributors of the movie, which stars Aditi Balan, Anjali Vardhan, and Lakshmi Gopalaswamy. Pradeep Antony and Mohammad Ali Baig are in supporting roles. The film depicts the events that take place in the life of Aruvi, a rebellious young woman trying to find purpose during an existential crisis while exposing the consumerist and misogynistic aspects of contemporary civilisation.

In late 2009, Arun Prabu Purushothaman developed a script based on international conflicts. However, because the writing took a long time to come to fruition, he later put the project on hold and worked on another script in late 2013, which became Aruvi. The film centres on the treatment of HIV patients in society. Prabu approached prominent actresses for the title role, but they turned down the script due to the delicate subject matter. Aditi Balan was ultimately chosen through an audition. Raymond Derrick Crasta edited the movie, Shelley Calist handled the cinematography, while independent artists Bindhumalini and Vedanth Bharadwaj wrote the soundtrack and score. The whole cast and crew were made up of novices.

Pre-production on the movie started in the middle of 2014, and it was filmed in Chennai, Trivandrum, and Kochi in six months. Aruvi debuted at a number of film festival circuits, with its first public showing taking place on June 14, 2016, at the Shanghai International Film Festival. On December 15, 2017, it was released in theatres across the globe to mostly good reviews from critics. The cast’s performances, particularly Balan’s, the film’s directing, and other technical elements were all commended. Film Companion named it one of the “25 Greatest Tamil Films of the Decade.”

Plot

Law enforcement officer Mohammad Shakeel Waqaab (Mohammad Ali Baig) interrogates Aruvi (Aditi Balan) and Emily (Anjali Varadhan) in the start of the movie because he believes Aruvi is a member of a terrorist group. When Aruvi’s parents and friends are summoned for questioning, they discuss Aruvi’s early and teenage years. She comes from a middle-class household and was reared with love and innocence. Her life takes a drastic change when her family turns against her and expels her, accusing her of embarrassing the family. She stays with her college friend Jessy (Shwetha Shekar) for a while before moving in with transgender Emily at a dorm.

They are employed as tailors in an NGO by a man named Arulmani (Madan Chakravarthy). She visits Arulmani one day in tears, requesting a loan of one lakh rupees because her father, Thirunavukkarasu, has had a small heart arrest. After that, she leaves and never comes back. She occasionally receives touch treatment from a Swami who employs hypnotherapy to reduce tension.

Emily goes to the makers of Solvathellam Sathyam, a reality TV program that highlights people’s issues. She laments the rape of her companion Aruvi by three men.The three men are summoned for questioning when assistant director Peter (Pradeep Antony) consents to broadcast their issue. Filming begins the following morning when Aruvi is asked to describe what happened to her by the host, Shobha Parthasarathy (Lakshmi Gopalaswamy). Then, according to Aruvi, the three men are the Swami, Arulmani, Joseph Mohandas (Mani Kutty), and Jessy’s father. When Aruvi sought refuge at Joseph’s home, he sexually assaulted her. When Aruvi begged for a loan, Arulmani took advantage of her predicament, and the Swami hypnotised and sexually assaulted her.

Aruvi then discloses that she has had AIDS for the previous two years. This was caused by an injury she sustained when drinking coconut water, which resulted in an infection through a wound in her mouth; the seller had accidentally spilt his blood into the straw while chopping open the coconut. Since they both have AIDS, she meets her buddy Emily at an NGO. Shobha turns against Aruvi and accuses her of purposefully infecting the three guys (all of whom tested negative for HIV during the performance) after Aruvi asks them to apologise. Aruvi is horrified and outlines all that is wrong with society and the needless stereotypes that the average person must adhere to in order to live in this consumeristic culture.

To increase his show’s TRP rating, director Balaji (Kavitha Bharathy) leveraged all this drama and concealed the three men’s HIV test results. With a gun drawn, Aruvi shoots Balaji in the arm. She later calms down and apologises to everyone, but as she stands up to go, Arulmani strikes Emily and tackles her. Aruvi becomes enraged by this and begins striking Arulmani with a rebar. She then kidnaps everyone and holds them at gunpoint. After seizing power, Aruvi forces the prisoners to engage in pointless games and activities with the primary goal of impressing him and sharing their emotions with one another; if they don’t, Aruvi threatens to shoot them to death.The hostages follow Aruvi’s directions and participate in the activities. Police surround the area as the noise of the disturbances creates a stir among the general public. After a while, Aruvi receives a call from Shakeel, assuring him of the hostages’ safety and expressing her fear for him. Everyone appears to get Stockholm syndrome during the game, and they start getting along with Aruvi. The three men who raped her are even forgiven by her.