Genre specificity is not yet a widely accepted concept in Tamil cinema. Mixtures of genres, if done right, have the potential to be celebrated to the hilt. Leave alone multiple genres, director Manivarman's Jenma Natchathiram, which wants to be a lot of things, fails to even effectively capture the nuances of the horror genre.

Jenma Natchathiram begins with an illustration of the biblical belief of Satan and the Antichrist and how he comes into being. The scene then shifts to Ajay (Taman Akshaan) and his wife, Riya (Malvi Malhotra), who are in a villa along with their couple friends, played by Maithreya and Raksha Cherin. Ajay is an assistant director who struggles to find an opportunity to direct a film. Even when a producer is interested in his story, he is at loggerheads with the producer in terms of executing his vision.

Meanwhile, a politician (Vela Ramamoorthy) is running from pillar to post to retain his constituency and takes the help of his assistant (Kaali Venkat) to distribute the cash among voters. The assistant, who is generally honest and straightforward, is forced to hide a portion of the money for personal needs. In a turn of events, the leads and their friends gain access to this secret place. Do they take the money, and more importantly, do they manage to leave the place? These questions form the crux of Jenma Natchathiram.

Problems with the film begin from the time these characters are introduced. If not for convenient writing, we wouldn't be seeing a 'struggling,' 'hustling' assistant director living in a palatial building. However, as the plot unravels, their residence serves a purpose. If Ajay lives in a compact rental house, which should ideally be the case for an AD who aspires to make it big, how will they bury a dead body in the huge garden? The film is replete with such convenient writing choices. This one aspect in the screenplay disengages us right at the beginning and tries in vain to regain our attention for the whole runtime. To make things worse, there is the unnecessary, weak and bog-standard subplot involving Munishkanth, who is also in pursuit of the money.

Jenma Natchathiram is an uncalled-for inspiration from the classic The Omen, featuring a runtime of two hours, out of which a good 45-50 minutes are dedicated to running around an abandoned building in search of money. Yet another example of convenient writing. A dying person divulges information about this place to the female lead. When the person can tell all about his tragedy, he could have also revealed where he has stashed the money. But the writer chooses to leave such gaping holes in the screenplay. The conflicts faced by the characters inside the building could have been placed elsewhere, or the film would have still been better off without any of the drama occurring there.

Jump scares are a characteristic feature of horror films that transition from a state of normalcy to possession and ultimately to exorcism. However, this does not apply to movies that focus on biblical demons, such as Rosemary's Baby, or even the 1991 film Jenma Natchathram, which is based on Richard Donner's 1976 film, The Omen. The 50 minutes were solely meant to evoke campiness and jump scares, thereby doing injustice to this subgenre.

Cast: Taman Akshaan, Malvi Malhotra, Maithreya, Raksha Cherin, Kaali Venkat

Director: B Manivarman

The film that takes place overnight does not need to focus heavily on character development. But the catch is, any information provided about the character should be essential to the narration's development and support his or her response to events that happen in the movie. Jenma Natchathiram is a huge disappointment in that respect too. In films of this genre, the focus will largely be on the lady chosen to bear Satan's child. Emphasis would be laid on her inner and external battles. Malvi's Riya is one such psychologically disturbed woman who often has nightmares filled with disturbing images of her holding the Antichrist, Satan initiating her into his cult. Apart from hallucinating, she also experiences such disturbing images in her wakeful state. Her psychological issues are introduced merely as a genre must-have with no explanations. Other characters commenting on her problems as "usual dreams" and "mental weakness" is reflective of the flippancy with which the writer has dealt with the only character, who has a semblance of nuance.

What makes the film irredeemable is that it fails to even provide the basic joys of this genre in pursuit of something lofty, and there's no luck on that front either. The makers, in a tear-jerking rush, run to seek refuge from the strengths of this genre in the eleventh hour with an Omen-like ending, but nothing can save the characters, the film, and even us from impending doom.