Roopa Banerjee

When we watch a realistic film, we laud it as a ‘slice of life’ movie while recommending it to friends. The same is true for books that faithfully portray life as it is. Writers use verisimilitude to create the real-life effect.

Verisimilitude is defined as being real or near to truth. It is used in fiction writing to create authenticity and credibility through various strategems, such as realistic dialogue, descriptive language, and plausible events. The word originates from the Latin versus, meaning like or toward, and similis, meaning similar.

One of the key elements of verisimilitude is the use of realistic dialogue. For a story to be believable, the characters must speak in a manner that is consistent with their personalities, backgrounds, and setting of the story. It should also be in sync with their education, social status, and regional or cultural dialects.

Another distinctive feature of verisimilitude is the use of descriptive language. This involves using specific and detailed language to paint a vivid picture of the story’s setting, characters, and events, to create a sense of immersion and real-life feeling for readers.

Verisimilitude also involves creating a story that is plausible and believable. For example, if a character is able to fly, there should be a logical explanation for this supernatural ability, rather than simply presenting it as magical power.
There are abundant examples of verisimilitude in literature. In To Kill a Mockingbird, author Harper Lee uses realistic dialogue and detailed descriptions of the characters and story setting to make it authentic. For instance the protagonist Atticus Finch speaks in a way that is consistent with his background as a lawyer, and the detailed descriptions of the small town of Maycomb, Alabama, creates a vivid setting.

Similarly, in the short story A Rose for Emily by William Faulkner, the author uses plausible sequence of events to create a sense of reality. The story is told by an unnamed narrator who speaks in a way that is congruent with the era and setting of the story.

Movies too have used verisimilitude over the years to provide as near real-life experiences to viewers. For instance The Shawshank Redemption uses realistic dialogue to create authenticity. The protagonist Andy Dufresne speaks the language of a finance executive, and the descriptions of the prison and surroundings create a convincing and immersive backdrop. The movie Gran Torino also uses true-to-life dialogue and events to make the story credible. The main character Walt Kowalski is believable as a Korean War veteran, and the action, while somewhat extreme, is presented credibly. Verisimilitude is an invaluable device to create cinema realism.

Although clubbed as art films in India in the early 70s, realistic films came into their own with filmmakers such as Gulzar and Hrishikesh Mukherjee pioneering the use of verisimilitude in Hindi films.

However it’s important to note that verisimilitude is not about portraying absolute reality, but the reality of the world as created in a book or film. When we say, “That wasn’t realistic” for a film, what we mean is that it wasn’t realistic within the context of the movie. Thus, verisimilitude is realism but only in the context of the film/book and not necessarily the real world.

Exercise
Here are some books which have used verisimilitude. Can you name their authors?
1. The Man in the High Castle
2. The Alteration
3. Fatherland
4. The Years of Rice and Salt

Authors:
1. Philip K. Dick
2. Kingsley Amis
3. Robert Harris
4. Kim Stanley Robinson