David was actively associated with
IPTA, a theatre organization, and went on to take part in many
Khwaja Ahmad Abbas's films, including
Palme d'Or nominee
Pardesi (1957), and
Shehar Aur Sapna (1963), which won the
1964 National Film Award for
Best Feature Film,
Munaa and
Char Dil Char Raahein. Strongly associated with avuncular roles, David is best known for his portrayal of "John Chacha" in the 1954 hit and
Filmfare Award for Best Film winner and
Palme d'Or nominee,
Boot Polish, directed by Prakash Arora, for which he won the 1955
Filmfare Best Supporting Actor Award. The song "Nanhe Munne Bachche" from the film, picturized on him became a memorable song of that era. In his prime, in the period 1959 to 1975, David was one of the best and the most well-known hosts of prominent award shows and other functions. In one of his speeches of
Jawaharlal Nehru, the
prime minister, said that any of the events would be surely be incomplete without David's speech. He was involved in promoting sports, and later became India's
Olympic Games representative. He was awarded the
Padma Shri award in 1969 by the
Government of India. Often billed as simply David or Uncle David, Cheulkar appeared in more than 110 Bollywood films in a career that exceeded four decades, many of them indeed as a kindly, avuncular character. Among his more notable performances were his roles in Boot Polish (1954), in which he played John Chacha, a kindly bootlegger who, before he is sent off to jail, takes two orphan siblings under his wing and teaches them to work for a living shining shoes, rather than to get by begging. Cheulkar received the Filmfare magazine Best Supporting Actor prize for that role. He was also featured in Pardesi (Journey Beyond Three Seas), a 1957 Russian-Indian coproduction taking place in the 1400s; The City and the Dream (Shehar Aur Sapna, in Hindi), a naturalistic urban drama from 1963, that was nominated for Indias National Film Award as best feature, and the romantic comedy Chupke Chupke from 1975 (from minute 1 to minute 2 of clip). In the 1969 film Satyakam, Cheulkar was given the opportunity to play against type, taking the role of Rustom, a debauched drunkard who serves as a foil to the hero of the film, a family drama that takes place during the final days of British rule in India, in 1947. According to his nephew, Bentsion Abraham Chewoolkar, who wrote an essay about his Uncle David, on the centenary of the latter's birth, Cheulkar, though not religiously devout, prayed briefly each day, and always observed
Yom Kippur by fasting and by visiting synagogue for the Neilah (closing) service. == Death ==