Aruvi (2016)

Original title

அருவி

Directed by

Arun Prabu Purushothaman

Genre

drama film, LGBTQ-related film

Country

India

Runtime

2h 10m

Rated

U

Rating

7.5 of 10 from 65 voters

Elsewhere

IMDb

How it feels

A young woman named Aruvi becomes disillusioned with modern society and its treatment of people with HIV. She takes a stand against consumerism and misogyny as she faces her own existential crisis.

rebelliousunsettlingbleaktensethought-provokingrawemotionalslow-burn

What happens

Aruvi (; transl. Waterfalls) is a 2017 Indian Tamil-language crime drama film written and directed by Arun Prabu Purushothaman, in his directorial debut. Produced and distributed by S. R. Prakash Babu and S. R. Prabhu of Dream Warrior Pictures, the film stars Aditi Balan, Anjali Vardhan, and Lakshmi Gopalaswamy, while Pradeep Antony and Mohammad Ali Baig play supporting roles. The film portrays the events that occur in the life of Aruvi, a rebellious young woman who seeks to expose the consumerist and misogynistic nature of modern civilisation, while attempting to find meaning during a period of existential crisis. Arun Prabu Purushothaman wrote a script based on global conflicts in late-2009, but as the scripting took a long time to materialise, he later halted the project and worked on another script in late-2013 which became Aruvi. The film revolves around how HIV patients are treated in society, and for the titular character, Prabu had approached leading actresses, however they rejected the script because of the sensitive nature in the topic and eventually, Aditi Balan was selected through an audition. The entire cast and crew were consisted of newcomers, Shelley Calist handled the cinematography, Raymond Derrick Crasta edited the film and indie musicians Bindhumalini and Vedanth Bharadwaj composed the film's soundtrack and score. The film began pre-production in mid-2014 and was shot within six months across Chennai, Trivandrum and Kochi. Aruvi was premiered at various film festival circuits, the first public screening was held at the Shanghai International Film Festival held during 14 June 2016. It was theatrically released worldwide on 15 December 2017 to highly positive reviews from critics. It was praised for the performances of the cast, especially of Balan, the film's direction and other technical aspects. It was considered one of the '25 Greatest Tamil Films of the Decade' by Film Companion. At the 65th Filmfare Awards South, Aditi Balan won the Filmfare Critics Award for Best Actress – Tamil, the only win out of its four nominations at the ceremony. The film additionally won two South Indian International Movie Awards, two Vijay Awards, a Techofes Award, two Edison Awards, four Norway Tamil Film Festival Awards, four Ananda Vikatan Cinema Awards and two Tamil Nadu State Film Awards. The film was a financial success, grossing ₹350 million against a budget of ₹10 million. (from Wikipedia, CC BY-SA)

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