Lots of superficial and structural similarities came flooding into my mind. Both films are fantasies weaving improbable plots that finally end in the triumph of good over the evil. But the stories are told cleverly with the aid of a brilliant script that packs many one-liners to deliver knock-out punches. Both are male dominated pictures, yet the femme fatale plays a pivotal role. The chemistry between the lead pair Munna & Jahnavi and Bond & Vesper sizzles and sets the screen on fire. The lead men are huge hunks who muscle their way through, yet surrender themselves as meek lambs to their women. The two movies are long drawn-out affairs, yet engrossing enough to prevent the viewers from getting restless. Both films have great feel-good factors, one with its nave simplicity and the other through its sensual slickness. Both the movies are very contemporary in their themes and treatment.

My list could have grown more inane and trivial had not serendipity struck suddenly. In LR Munna and his friends use Gandhian Satyagraha to force the land shark to give up the property that he had usurped unfairly. In CR, despite the bludgeoning and battering, Bond is financed by his Government to gamble at the casino to win back money from a rogue who bankrolls terrorism. How Bond cheats to win is not made clear in the film. Both the heroes use psychological warfare against their opponents. Gandhis tactics of Satyagraha and fast unto death against the British Empire were as much poker as Bonds gamble against Le Chiffre in Casino Royale. Had Her Majesty sent James Bond to negotiate against a fasting Gandhi, who would have won?