Actor Jagathy faces the arclights after seven years

Thrissur (Kerala), Feb 28 (IANS) Ace comedian Jagathy Sreekumar, who has been inactive in the film world following a life-altering accident, faced the arclights on Thursday after a gap of seven years -- but for an ad film.

The 68-year-old actor, popular as Jagathy, though seated in a wheel chair, was seen waving to his fans. His face lit up with joy when the fans applauded him.

It was in the wee hours on March 10, 2012 that the actor who in a career spanning 41 years acted in more than 1000 Malayalam films, was seriously injured in a road accident near Kozhikode in north Kerala while he was dashing off to reach a shooting location that morning on the Kerala-Karnataka border.

After that accident, he was shifted in an air ambulance to the Christian Medical College, Vellore, near Chennai and was there for a year.

Now, even though he has not regained his speech, he understands all that is said to him.

His daughter Parvathy told IANS that her father was immensely pleased and happy to be back where he belongs.

"This is an ad film and it is just of 45 seconds duration. We all could sense that he is extremely happy and that was there on his face. Like him, we are also very happy that he has come this far," said Parvathy.

The ad film was for a water theme park. It is produced by a newly launched advertising agency of his son.

Jagathy resides in the state capital. He follows a regular exercise regime as he is made to walk everyday and spends most of his time listening to music. He now moves his lips to match the words of the songs that he hears.