Aruvi (pronunciation^ⓘ; transl. Waterfalls) is a 2017 Indian Tamil-language political 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 and four Ananda Vikatan Cinema Awards. The film was a financial success, grossing ₹350 million against a budget of ₹10 million. In 2021, the makers announced a Hindi remake of the film.

The film begins with Aruvi (Aditi Balan) and Emily (Anjali Varadhan) being interrogated by law enforcement officer Mohammad Shakeel Waqaab (Mohammad Ali Baig), who suspects Aruvi to be part of a terrorist organization. Aruvi's parents and friends are called for interrogation and they talk about Aruvi's childhood and adolescence. She is a lovingly raised, innocent girl from a middle-class family. Things take a turn in her life when her family turns against her and kicks her out of the house, accusing her of having brought shame to the family. Her college friend Jessy (Shwetha Shekar) takes her in for a while, then moves to a hostel and lives with Emily, who is a transgender woman. They work for a man called Arulmani (Madan Chakravarthy) as tailors in an NGO. One day, she goes to Arulmani crying, asking for a loan of 1 lakh rupees as her father (Thirunavukkarasu) has suffered a minor cardiac arrest. She then takes off and does not return. Occasionally, she undergoes touch therapy with a Swami who uses hypnosis to heal stress.

Emily approaches the producers of Solvathellam Sathyam, a reality show that showcases people's problems on TV. She complains about three men who raped her friend Aruvi. Assistant director Peter (Pradeep Antony) agrees to telecast their problem and calls the three men for interrogation. The next morning, shooting starts as the host, Shobha Parthasarathy (Lakshmi Gopalaswamy), asks Aruvi to narrate what happened to her. Aruvi then explains that the three men are Jessy's father, Joseph Mohandas (Mani Kutty), Arulmani, and the Swami. Joseph had sexually abused Aruvi when she took shelter in his house. Arulmani had taken advantage of Aruvi's situation when she begged for a loan, and the Swami had hypnotized and raped her. Aruvi then reveals that she has had AIDS for the past two years (which occurred due to her getting infected through a wound in her mouth after an injury while having coconut water; the seller had inadvertently shed his blood into the straw while cutting open the coconut). She meets her friend Emily at an NGO as both of them have AIDS. Aruvi asks the three men to apologize, but Shobha turns against Aruvi, accusing her of intentionally infecting those men (who were all tested negative for an HIV test performed during the show). Aruvi is appalled and states everything wrong with the society and the unnecessary stereotypes that every common man has to conform to, in order to fit into this consumeristic world.

The director, Balaji (Kavitha Bharathy) used all this drama and hid the HIV test results from the three men so as to improve his show's TRP rating. Aruvi pulls out a gun and shoots Balaji in the arm. Later, she calms herself and apologizes to everyone, but as she gets up to leave, Arulmani tackles her and hits Emily. This maddens Aruvi, and she starts hitting Arulmani with a rebar and takes everyone hostage, holding them at gunpoint. Aruvi then takes control and subjects the hostages to trivial games and activities; the main motive was to impress Aruvi and share others' feelings with each other, failing which Aruvi threatened to shoot them dead. The hostages abide by Aruvi's instructions and go with the activities. The sound of the commotions causes a wide public stir and police surround the premises. Aruvi gets a call from Shakeel, and she assures him of the safety of the hostages and her apprehension towards him after a while. During the course of the game, everyone seems to get affected by Stockholm syndrome, and they become friendly with Aruvi. She even forgives the three men who raped her.

Aruvi suffers a nosebleed by the time she surrenders to the police. Since she and Emily are AIDS patients, they cannot be arrested and have to be isolated inside the camp. Aruvi's condition continues to deteriorate as she loses a lot of weight and becomes incapable of taking care of herself. One night, she disappears from the camp and moves to a village all alone. After a few days, all of Aruvi's friends (the hostages) receive a video from Aruvi on Facebook. The video shows her crying and explaining how she misses everyone and speaks about all the regrets in her life. On seeing the video, Peter gathers everyone and takes them to the village in which Aruvi currently resides (an allusion to Peter's story that he narrated to Aruvi during the hostage situation). Peter gifts Aruvi a card with "Love you Aruvi, Peter," written on it. Touched, she reciprocates his feelings (this too was a revisit of Peter's earlier proposal to Aruvi during the incident, albeit in a bland way before).