‘Tagpuan’ wins best film in India

Shaina Magdayao (left) and Alfred Vargas in “Tagpuan”

“The universe is fair,” said filmmaker MacArthur Alejandre of his personal mantra, which could also aptly describe the best feature film trophy that his screen drama “Tagpuan” (Crossroads) brought home from the 6th Chauri Chaura International Film Festival in Uttar Pradesh, India.

“Tagpuan,” written by Ricky Lee, is the story of three people (played by Alfred Vargas, Iza Calzado and Shaina Magdayao) involved in a complicated love story. The film, which debuted at the 2020 Metro Manila Film Festival (MMFF), was shot in Manila, Hong Kong and New York.

“It was our supervising producer, Ferdy Lapuz, who woke me up one early morning to relay the good news. It was a very pleasant surprise,” Alejandre told Inquirer Entertainment on Sunday night. “I am happy and grateful because I feel the happiness of the people around me. The producers, as well as the people I worked with on the film, are happy with the award.”

Even though “Tagpuan” shared the bottom spot (in terms of box-office returns) with three other MMFF entries of the same theme, it was heralded as the Third Best Picture. It also won for Magdayao the best supporting actress award.

“‘The universe is fair’ is really my favorite line. In my conversations with Alfred, (who is also a major producer of ‘Tagpuan’), I often ended my statements with that phrase whenever I couldn’t think of anything more to say. Whenever we encountered the usual production problems, I would mouth it just to imply, ‘Chill, things will get better.’ It later became a running joke in the shoot because we had mouthed that line in jest every chance we got,” Alejandre explained.

He said Vargas would later repeat that line, “When we experienced rain or our camera broke or our lights got busted. It made the mood on our set even lighter. But in all seriousness,”

After Alejandre’s “Kaputol” (Fragments), which also features Vargas along with Cherie Gil, won best ensemble at a film fest in Milan, Italy, last year, it’s now the turn of “Tagpuan,” the director pointed out. “My coworkers are all talented. We worked passionately. Our set was filled with positivity and good vibes all the time,” he declared.

Alejandre said that during trying times like the present, he has learned to “welcome and embrace joy, be it big or small, especially when people who matter to me feel them, too. I’m grateful to the festival that they appreciated our film. This makes me happy.”