Desire Without Confession

Queer Silence and Rural Intimacy in U for Usha

Bibliographic Data

ID11061823
AuthorsKrishna Kharwar (0009-0000-0192-3534, Russian State Agrarian Correspondence University, corresponding author), Ram Pravesh Rai (0000-0003-3331-6370, Central University of Himachal Pradesh)
Year2025
Pages1-29
Publication date2025-12-22
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessNo
TypeARTICLE
VenueJournal of Homosexuality (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0091-8369 • E-ISSN: 1540-3602
PublisherInforma UK Limited (PUBLISHER • GB)
DOI10.1080/00918369.2025.2599360
PMID41427568
OpenAlexW7116671935
LanguageEN
References cited17

The Marathi short film U for Usha (2019) portrays the journey of an illiterate, single mother navigating her identity and desires within a deeply traditional rural society in Maharashtra. This study analyses how the film encodes rural queer intimacy through silence, gesture, and everyday spaces, and how audiences from varied socio-cultural backgrounds decode these meanings. Using an interpretative qualitative design, the research combines close reading of the film, a semi-structured interview with director Rohan Kanawade, and a focus-group discussion. Grounded in feminist film theory, queer ruralism, intersectionality, and Hall's encoding/decoding model, the analysis reveals that Kanawade's rural background shapes the film's narrative and aesthetic choices, while audience interpretations differ based on caste, gender, educational background, region, and media exposure. The study argues that U for Usha challenges urban-centric queer narratives in Indian cinema and highlights the importance of rural, intersectional experiences in understanding queer representation and spectatorship

Identity (music · Movie theater · Narrative · Queer · Queer theory · Reading (process · Representation (politics · Sexual identity · Silence · LGBTQ Health, Identity, and Policy · Social and Economic Development in India · South Asian Cinema and Culture