After being caught in a moral bind for more than a week, Hothat Neerar Jonyo has wriggled out of the censor board’s scissors, almost unscathed.

On the intervention of censor board chairman Anupam Kher — and chief minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee — the Central Board of Film Certification on Wednesday announced its decision to pass the film with a minor cut.

Labelling the film’s content as “detrimental to Bengali culture”, a five-member examining committee of the board had referred the film, based on a Sunil Gangopadhyay short story, to Kher last week.

“I dashed off a letter to Anupam Kher, explaining that the censor board cannot say anything against the theme of a film,” Gangopadhyay told Metro on Wednesday. “And chief minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee’s intervention helped a lot. He had called me after reading reports of the censor problem and assured me that he would sort out the matter,” he added.

The information and cultural affairs office was tightlipped. “All I can say is that we wanted a logical conclusion to the matter,” said principal secretary Arun Bhattacharya.

The censor board has asked for a cut in a bed scene involving Arindam Sil and Jaya Seal, who play husband and wife. “We are comfortable with it,” said director Subrata Sen, adding: “Anupam Kher hasn’t seen the film, but he used his discretionary power to resolve the dispute.”

The film is based on Rani O Abinash, a short story Gangopadhyay had penned in the 1970s. With percussionist Bikram Ghosh and Jaya Seal in the lead, it focuses on how the male protagonist pursues his ex-flame, body and soul. Initially slated for a July 9 launch, Hothat Neerar Jonyo will now hit the halls on July 16.