Interesting analysi, Lodestar :) And you've made many valid points here.....
@bold: A slight correction there....Imlie never told the villagers that Adi promised to marry her....she only told them that SHE is willing to marry him to save his life. At no point did she indicate that her and Adi had that kind of relationship or any promises to marry....her stance was clear that she only agreed cuz the villagers wanted to kill him otherwise. Adi also only stopped protesting after she begged him to stop talking😆....cuz she was trying to manage the situation for both of them.
Ok. That is a typo error about Imlie agreeing to marry him. I had written this before, then edited out, but I think it got posted. But still Adi who was willing to anyways die, didn't need to agree to marry her. He anyways has been reckless with his life even after that. I know he has a habit of making such statements ainvayein but that time he was really willing to die rather than get married.
If the forced marriage had never taken place, I think destiny would have found other ways to throw them in each other's path but it may have taken longer.....the marriage essentially erased the city/village divide that they may have otherwise had to overcome to begin to view each other as actual partners.....otherwise it may have just stayed till the point of friendly banter and wishing each other well. Adi would have gone back to the city, married Malini in his delusion that he still loves her and Imlie would have landed up in the city in some other way to study/make her career....their paths then would have crossed later on. The forced marriage essentially turbo charged their equation and brought in awareness that otherwise may have taken longer to develop between them consciously since their life goals were on different paths in other ways.
I agree that it would have taken them a longer time as they were on different paths in life then & the forced marriage literally bound them to each other.