Yep, this is where I also think it's going.....AC was used to bring out the insinuation of an affair today cuz that's how Adi-Imlie will get viewed by various characters until the truth of their marriage is revealed.
The complication likely will be that Imlie won't want to reveal the truth of their marriage cuz it will hurt her Malini didi....so she may be the one holding Adi back from revealing the truth to anyone even if they misunderstand his relationship with Imlie. This goes in line with the sacrificing nature of Imlie's character....she isn't running from the truth that their marriage is valid....but at the same time she doesn't want this truth to hurt others either so she will take the hurt upon herself and be determined to bear it all alone. How much Adi will let her do that is what remains to be seen.
I still wouldn't really term it an "affair" emotionally also. At the end of the day, Imlie is his wife....what he has essentially started to do is reciprocate emotionally to that relationship which is a valid one. An affair always implies something illicit. If we go by that logic, he was having an "affair" with Malini all this time too since he was responding to her as a husband despite being married to someone else too....but I didn't call that an affair either because both the relationships had grounding in terms of rituals.
I'm not sure if they can show Adi-Malini continuing their regular relationship from this point on...I'm expecting Adi to pull back from her physically in some form given the degree of this all consuming soulful connection he has been shown to realize with Imlie.......but then I wonder if he does that, how will Malini not create a huge hue and cry over it? lol.....so to what angle can he give her something to drag the relationship on even though his heart won't be in it....that remains to be seen.
I agree that he will keep seeking Imlie out emotionally since he feels that she is the only one who understands him and he can share everything with her.....Malini never really understood him to begin with but yes, she will definitely be insecure if she starts to notice the emotional tuning/understanding between Adi-Imlie in the coming time....and arguments would be inevitable then....but would Adi fall back in guilt or will he try to actually understand that this shows why him and Malini are incompatible.
no, I didn't mean it as as affair, I meant it as Malini would view it as an affair