Punjab Kesari (1938) had a conventional hero in the film, which was played by the popular stage actor then making his way into Tamil cinema, P.U. Chinnappa who soon rose to become one of the top singing stars of the1940s. The movie was directed by a Bombay-based Parsi filmmaker then active in Tamil Cinema, Fram Sethna. However, the movie met with only limited success.

 The screen story of Punjab Kesari is long, full of twists and turns and somewhat predictable. It is about a freedom loving man named Punjab Kesari (Kesavan), a detective, and his assistant (Kali N. Ratnam) who calls himself by an unusual name ‘Karapaanpoochi’ (cockroach). Sundaranathan (Chinnappa) is a young man in love with a young woman Padmabai (Rajalakshmi), the daughter of a rich man Somanathan Prabhu (H. H. Sarma). The rich man decides to get his daughter married to the young man but there is a villain, (Perumal) who covets her and her wealth, with a gang behind him. They kill the rich man and foist the murder on the hero. He goes to prison, and a kind doctor (Kannan) engages the detective Punjab Kesari to find out the truth. Punjab Kesari and his assistant unmask the killer and the truth. Sundaranathan and Padmabai marry and live happily.

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